500 .. (Born Pa.) .... WASHINGTON HOOD (Ap'd Pa.) .. 31

Military History.-Cadet at the Military Academy, July 1, 1823, to July 1, 1827, when he was graduated and promoted in the Army to

BVT. SECOND LIEUT. OF INFANTRY, JULY 1, 1827.

SECOND LIEUT., 4TH INFANTRY, JULY 1, 1827.

Served: in garrison at Jefferson Barracks, Mo., 1827-29; on Engineer duty, Apr. ~9, 1829, to Nov. 23, 1831 ; in garrison at Cantonment Brooke,

(FIRST LIEUT., 4TH INFANTRY, Dec. 28, 1835)

Fla., 1831 ; and on Topographical duty, Nov. 25, 1831, to Aug. 7,1836.

RESIGNED, AUG: 7; 1836.

Civil History. - Civil Engineer in Cuba, W.I., 1837.

Military History. - Re-appointed in the U. S. Army with the rank of

CAPTAIN, CORPS OF TOPOGRAPHICAL ENGINEERS, JULY 7, 1838.

Served: in the Topographical Bureau at Washington, D. C., 1839; and in Surveying and Marking the Boundaries between the Indian tribes west of the Mississippi, 1839.

DIED, JULY 17, 1840, AT BEDFORD, PA.: AGED 32.

from Cullum, G. W., Biographical register of the officers and graduates of the USMA at West Point, N.Y., from its establishment in 1802 to 1890, with the early history of the USMA.

WASHINGTON HOOD:  Five Hundredth Graduate
of the United States Military Academy

by Charles R. Steitz, Jr.

 A telephone call, a broken monument, and an interest in American history led the author on an enlightening investigation of the United States MilitaryAcademy's 500th graduate, Washington Hood, class of 1827. Washington Hood, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 2 February, 1808, was the oldest of a family of twelve children. His father, John McClellan Hood, was born in Newton Stewart, County Tyrone, Ireland, in 1778. At the age of twenty-one John Hood came to America and settled in Philadelphia. There he entered the wholesale grocery business, first as the firm of Hood and Hamilton, and later as Hood and Wilson. In 1805 he married Eliza Forebaugh, a descendant of early German pioneers.

John Hood's business prospered enough to enable him to take leisurely trips into the country areas outside Philadelphia. During the summer months, when yellow fever season prevailed, he would take these trips into the countryside with his family. His favorite place seemed to be the village of Limerick - in the township of the same name - along the Reading Road (for many years U.S. Route 422) about thirty miles northwest of Philadelphia.

These trips became a tradition, and for a number of years the Hood family spent the summer season in Limerick Township. In 1834-35, John Hood built a mansion there, a copy of a house he admired in Ireland; he named it "Bessy Bell." In pre-Civil War days it served as a stopover for slaves as they made their way to Canada via the Underground Railroad. It was here that John Hood retired, and it was here, in 1848, that he died - broken in health by the death of his son Washington in 1840.¹

During the span of Washington Hood's life, America came of age. This period is often referred to in the history books as the "Era of Good Feelings." The Barbary Wars and the War of 1812 won for the United States respect abroad, and Americans were strengthening the nation in all facets of growth. Into such an America stepped Washington Hood when, at the age of fifteen, he entered the United States Military Academy in 1823.

Hood's cadet application seems to indicate political overtones in connection with his appointment. A letter from one John Steel to a General Rogers (sent from Philadelphia 29 January, 1823) says, in part: "I earnestly request you to aid and join with all your forces, in having Washington Hood of our city appointed a cadet during the present session ... his father (John Hood) has always been one of our decided men, no trimmer and no doubt will always remain so, from principle. Messers Findlay and Lowrie of [the} Senate - Mr. Sergeant Louis friend, [and] Ingham of H. Rs. will cooperate with you ... We hope Mr. Calhoun will not forget Penna. You know what you have done and what we can do ... this appointment would be popular in our city."

Letters requesting the appointment were written by Washington Hood himself, with additions written by his father. But this was probably to show the addressees the son's clear and beautiful handwriting, for the thoughts were those of John Hood.

Washington Hood entered the Academy in the school's most formative years. Sylvanus Thayer, class of 1808, was the superintendent, and William J. Worth, Twenty-third Infantry and a hero of the War of 1812, was the commandant. Entrance requirements were simple in those years: "Candidates for cadets [must] be not under the age of fourteen, nor above the age of twenty-one years; each cadet ... shall be well versed in reading, writing, and arithmetic."

The entrance examination was simple, usually oral. It consisted of only a few questions (what is a fraction?) and a few tasks (read a few lines from a book; write a dictated sentence on the blackboard). Easy to answer or do today, but it must be remembered that most Americans of that period had very little schooling. So, even with these low entrance requirements nearly half the applicants were rejected, and, of those accepted, less than half graduated.

Washington Hood's life at the Academy was as ordinary as that of any other cadet who endured its four difficult years in the period before the Civil War. In fact, many cadets at that time professed to find life there "dull and monotonous." And, while little is known of Hood's personal life as a cadet, a review of his academic marks and his merits and demerits may give us a clue to his character and personality. As to the marking system, Superintendent Thayer attached a numerical weight to each subject according to its importance. Chemistry, for example, might have a value of one hundred points, and a cadet's rank might have been sixty-eight out of one hundred points (68/100). History was included in political and moral philosophy, and mathematics included all phases of the subject.

Hood's academic marks were as follows: During his fourth class year (freshman) he took only mathematics - 107/200 - and French - 42Y2/1oo. (French was taught because most advanced textbooks in engineering at the time were written in that language.) Hood's general merit was 149/300, and he ranked forty-sixth in the class. In his third class year (sophomore) he studied mathematics - 176/300; French - 39/100; and drawing – 47 ⅓ /50. His class standing was thirty-four. His second class year (junior) included two new subjects: philosophy - 120/300, and chemistry - 50/100; his class ranking was twenty-nine. His first class year (senior) was the most challenging. That year he was required to pass nine subjects: mathematics - 176/300; French - 36/100; natural philosophy (physics) 120/300; drawing 100/100; engineering - 173/300; chemistry and mineralogy averaged together - 85/200; and rhetoric and moral philosophy, also averaged together - 84/200. His final class standing was thirty-one in a class of thirty-eight.

As for Hood's disciplinary record as a cadet, his many demerits (which probably influenced his final class standing) seem to have been for minor offenses: "light not extinguished at taps, inattention at drill, not taking his seat at table at word of command, unnecessary talking at table, smoking cigars." (At that time a cadet who received two hundred demerits a year was dismissed.) Altogether, Hood's cadet record seems to indicate that he was a mediocre student except in drawing, at which he excelled. That strength could have been a factor in his eventual assignment to the Corps of Topographical Engineers.

Of the thirty-eight graduates of the Class of 1827, a few names ring out in American history. Leonidas Polk of North Carolina (8/38) resigned after graduation to become an Episcopal clergyman and, later, bishop of Louisiana; in 1857 he was one of the founders of the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee. When the Civil War broke out he entered the service of the Confederacy, became a lieutenant general, and was killed in action at Pine Mountain, Georgia. Another classmate from North Carolina, Gabrial Rains (13/38), also joined the Confederate Army and developed the first use of land mines in warfare. And, Phillip St. George Cooke from Virginia (23/38) had an exciting army career before and during the Civil War. Cooke's daughter married "Jeb" Stuart and wartime situations often found Cooke chasing his famous Confederate son-in-law.

Another member of the Class of 1827, Abraham Van Buren of New York (37/38), resigned from the army in 1837 to become private secretary to his father, President Martin Van Buren. In all, six members of the class, including Washington Hood, are listed in the Dictionary of American Biography, a compilation of those who have made some significant contribution to American life.

Other men who would go on to distinguished careers were also students at the Academy when Hood was a cadet, and he may have been acquainted with many of them, for the corps was small then and most members knew each other. There was, for instance, Robert Parrott, class of 1824, the inventor of the Parrott gun; Jefferson Davis, class of 1828, president of the Confederate States; Dennis Hart Mahan, class of 1824, father of Alfred T. Mahan the naval strategist, and himself a professor at the Academy for many years; and Robert E. Lee, class of 1829, who would later work with Hood surveying the Ohio-Michigan boundary line.

During Hood's formative years at the Academy Sylvanus Thayer laid the cornerstones of cadet training, and these have stood the test of time. Traditions were born. The Dialectic Society, founded in 1826 and the oldest of West Point's clubs, debated and discussed the subjects of that day. And a fellow by the name of Benny Havens set up a tavern in 1824 near the Academy which became one of the more famous establishments in West Point history. Lafayette also visited in 1825 and the clock he presented to the Academy can still be seen in the administration building.

Hood received his military education at a most productive time. His final examination before the Board of Visitors in 1827 was both an ordeal and a reward. Imagine a young cadet about nineteen years old answering questions and demonstrating on a blackboard before a group of high ranking officers and distinguished educators. Those who passed became members of a closely knit group of graduates.

View the field notebook  used by Hood in 1828 while stationed at Jefferson Barracks.

After graduation in 1827 Hood was breveted second lieutenant of infantry and assigned to the Fourth United States Infantry then stationed at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri.  Two years later he entered the corps of engineers and was assigned to Cantonment Brooke, which was located near the present-day city of Tampa, Florida. On 25 November, 1831, he was on topographical duty and remained so until 7 August 1836 when he resigned from the army with the rank of first lieutenant.

In 1835 Hood was associated with Robert E. Lee in a map-making expedition to settle once and for all the Ohio-Michigan boundary dispute. This involved a strip of land averaging six and one half miles in width and extending along the northern border of Ohio west of Lake Erie. Michigan's claim was based on the boundary laid down by the Northwest Ordinance (1787). Ohio's claim was based on the line set forth in its state constitution, which the U.S. Congress had neither confirmed nor rejected when Ohio was admitted to the Union.

To settle this dispute, the government sent Captain Andrew Talcott and Lieutenants Robert E. Lee and Washington Hood to survey and map this area. On the basis of this survey both Michigan and Ohio agreed to compromise and Michigan became a state in 1837. This dispute nearly erupted into a border clash and is often referred to as the "Toledo War."

During 1836, Hood, along with 116 other officers, resigned his commission to accept the faster promotions and higher pay of civilian life. In 1837 Washington Hood worked as a civil engineer in Cuba, and after a year there re-entered the army. Commissioned a captain, Hood was again assigned to the Corps of Topographical Engineers which had become a separate branch of the army in 1831. In the line of duty, Hood made many maps for the United States government. Since he served in Florida, one of his earliest assignments involved mapping the region of the Seminole Wars.

But Hood's most important work came in mapping areas west of the Mississippi River, particularly in the Northwest. Many maps of the West were based on Spanish explorations, or on the Lewis and Clark and Zebulon Pike expeditions. Into those maps also went the comments of mountain men such as Jim Coulter and Jedediah Smith.

Download  full map in JPEG2000 format

How much Hood's maps contributed to the settlement of the West is debatable. According to William H. Goetzman's publications Army Exploration in the American West, 1803-1863 and Exploration and Empire, Hood's maps were inaccurate and may even have been copied. And, in a book published in 1846, Robertson's Oregon, Our Right and Title, Hood's map of the Territory of Oregon shows the Great Salt Lake to be rectangular.

Whether accurate or not, Hood's maps played an important part in the settlement of Oregon. Then, in 1838, he was commissioned by President Martin Van Buren to make a survey of land ????? of the Mississippi,. His health failed during this expedition and he returned East, dying in Bedford Springs, Pennsylvania, on 17 July 1840: He was buried on his father's estate in Limerick Township.

The cause of Hood's death is not known - county death records were not kept until 1890 - and his remains have never been found. Only a part of his coffin and its handles have been located; it is believed vandals destroyed the crypt and scattered Hood's remains in adjoining fields. In fact, in the 1970s when the author first photographed Hood's crypt and monument, they were in a state of disrepair, located in a stand of second and third growth timber with vines, ivy, and raspberry plants interwoven among the trees. The crypt was broken (and still is), and the monument was in pieces, the part with the inscription lying in front of the crypt, and the top part in a small stream a few yards away. Empty beer cans and broken glass completed the picture.

In 1989 Washington Hood's monument was removed from the above-described site and set on a temporary site in the rear of the Hood mansion. Today there are renewed efforts to restore the property to its former elegance and, through the efforts of Mrs. Kenneth Kehler, the present tenant, and the Limerick Township Historical Society, action has been taken to make the Hood estate a historical site.

Source: Pennsylvania Folklife: 1990, vol:39, no:3 pg:131 -139