Meanwhile , in the Western Theater , the Confederate army under General Braxton Bragg was faring poorly . Lee dispatched two divisions of Longstreet 's Corps to Tennessee , and Hood was able to rejoin his men at Chickamauga Creek on September 18 . Bragg ordered him to form a " mini-corps , " merging one of the brigades he had with him on the field with Brig. Gen. Bushrod Johnson 's division . It was then that Hood participated in the Battle of Chickamauga , driving Col. Robert Minty 's Union brigade from Reed 's Bridge and stopping only at Alexander 's Bridge , where John T. Wilder 's men fired their Spencer repeating rifles on the Confederates . As darkness set in , he chanced to have met Gen. John C. Breckinridge , former Vice-President of the United States , presidential candidate and Senator of Kentucky as well as a cousin of Buck Preston . The remaining two units of Hood 's division regrouped with their commander to prepare for the next day 's battle
presidential candidate
1860 Democratic National Conventions
John Bell Hood