After the Civil War, General John Bell Hood (for whom Ft. Hood is named) moved to Louisiana and became a cotton broker and worked as a President of the Life Association of America, an insurance business. In 1868, he married New Orleans native Anna Marie Hennen, with whom he fathered 11 children over 10 years, including three pairs of twins. He also served the community in numerous philanthropic endeavors, assisting in fund raising for orphans, widows, and wounded soldiers. For awhile he flourished. But his insurance business was ruined by a yellow fever epidemic in New Orleans during the winter of 1878–79 and he succumbed to the disease himself, dying just days after his wife and oldest child, leaving 10 destitute orphans. These are those children.

After Hood died, this photo was published as a plea for funds to provide for them. I have transcribed, verbatim, what is printed on the back of the image:

"The two little girls on the left, ODILE MUSSON and IDA RICHARDSON, (twins) three years old; ODILE is on the extreme left in the act of trundling a doll's carriage, while Ida is near seated with the doll in her arms. Little IDA looks pale and like an invalid, having only recently recovered from the fever when her picture was taken; the third from the left is DUNCAN NORBET, seven years old, and next to him stands with one hand on Duncan's shoulder, JOHN BELL, Jr., eight years old; both of these boys have bright, beautiful faces, the latter resembling his father. Next to John Bell sits cunning little OSWALD, thirteen months old, whose chubby bare legs and arms many a childless mother will long to dimple with kisses. Next in the order to which they are named, are ETHEL GENEVIEVE and ANNABEL, (twins) nine years old, in whose sweet faces the features of the mother are plainly discerned. Next in the order of naming are Lillian MARIE and MARIAN MAUDE, (twins), six years old. In front of the group, and recliging on a miniature sofa, is the little baby fast asleep, ANNA GERTRUDE, only two months old. A vacant chair on the extreme right speaks eloquently but sadly of the missing LYDIA, the sweet girl, the eldest of all the children, who, taken sick just before her father, died a few hours after he ceased to be. The portrait of the General is on the left and of Mrs. Hood on the wall.

Every Picture Sold Adds to the Permanent Fund for the Education and Maintenance of these "Wards of the South."
Sold under the Auspices of the Hood Relief Committiee, New Orleans.