Bizarre coincidence?

[John Given]

There is something I have known about myself that I have shared with a few family members and friends, and I thought I would just mention here (guess you can tell I'm bored!)

1. My real name is John Given, but by eerie coincidence, there was a man in the U.S. civil war, also named John Given, who received the Congressional Medal of Honor - america's highest award. If you google my name, you will eventually see a site that shows the gravesite and mentions other pertinent info. (sorry I didn't write it down, but it's easy to find) It sure is creepy seeing your own name on a tombstone! Brrr... :skull: :scream: :eek1:

2. My stepfather, Terry Given, adopted me and my brother more than 20 years ago. My original name was John Hood. During the U.S. civil war (again!) was a high-ranking confederate general by the exact same name. I haven't done much research on him in years, but I know he played a major role during the battle of Antietam - a battle that cost more U.S. lives than any other single battle in U.S. history (although I've read that Antietam actually raged for several days).

And there you have it! Just thought I'd share that tidbit with you guys. :)

[Boonierat]

Well I hope you won't end up like John Bell Hood, he lost an arm and a leg and had the Army of the Tennessee destroyed in front of Nashville under his command :laugh:

[John Given]

That's the man, Boonierat! So *that's* what happened to him. I remember in high-school history class how when we were reading about the civil war, the other students would poke fun at how we shared the same name.

And no, I don't plan on ending up like him - I'm from Kentucky, not Tennessee, and I counldn't get into the military on account of my eyesight. But I CAN get a private pilot's license, go figure! :nuts:

[Abatis]

Hood was one helluva leader- until his wounds from Gettysburg and subsequent laudanum need...laudanum can be blamed for much of his failures IMHO in Tennessee. He was just not the same man, sleeping through the best opportunity he had to destroy the Federal Army as it performed a difficult, disorganized night march.(his subordinates dropped the ball there too, to be fair) Not to mention, he was brilliant tactically, and quite a personal example to follow on the field (wrecklessly brave)but poor as a strategist and manager-the role he was promoted up to in TN. He would have been better off staying at Brigade command IMHO. But thats not a novel idea, lots of historians say that.