THE COLONEL, JUDGE, AND PREACHER

           William Basil Wood organized the 16th Alabama Infantry Regiment in Courtland, Alabama, August 8, 1861.  A member of a prominent Florence family, his father served as the city’s first mayor.  A younger brother, Sterling Alexander Martin Wood, was later promoted to the rank of brigadier general in the Confederate Army.  

 

     An alumnus of La Grange College, William Basil Wood was elected County Judge in 1844. In 1862, while on active military duty, he was elected Judge of the Circuit Court, an office he held until 1880.

 

     Judge Wood was also an ordained local preacher in the Methodist Church.  He is credited with organizing the first Sunday school class in Florence in 1843.  One historian wrote that Colonel Wood “often preached in the camps, and at War Trace (Tennessee), he, Colonel Lowry, and Colonel Reid, assisted the chaplain of the regiment in a revival in which several hundred were converted.”  

 

     Wood was described as “over the medium size, broad shouldered and portly, and with frank social manners.”  In his book, Early Settlers of Alabama, Colonel James Saunders noted that in the Battles of Triune and Murfreesboro, Colonel Wood “led his regiment gallantly as he had done at Fishing Creek.”  Another writer observed that Colonel Wood “was very cool in the battlefield, and was kind to the sick and wounded.”  On the retreat from the Battle of Fishing Creek, Wood insisted that his horse be used for the sick and wounded, while “he walked until he wore his feet into solid blisters.”  Lieutenant John M. McGee, in remembering the activities of the 16^th Alabama, made this statement about its commanding officer: “I know that there was not a colonel in the army, who was more beloved by his men, and that he could lead them anywhere.”

 

     In November, 1862, following a long and almost fatal sickness from typhoid fever, Colonel Wood was assigned to General Longstreet’s Corps where he was appointed Presiding Judge of the Military Court. In May, 1863, he was transferred to the Army of Northern Virginia as the Presiding Judge of the First Army Corps.          

     Following the war, Judge Wood devoted much of his time and energy to the promotion and expansion of the economy of Florence.  He, more than any other person, is credited with the industrial revolution that came to East Florence during the late 1880’s. 

     Prior to the Civil War, Judge Wood played a major role in the relocation of La Grange College to Florence.  In 1872, he led a victorious campaign to persuade the state to accept the abandoned Florence Wesleyan University facilities so as to establish what eventually became the modern University of North Alabama.             

     Judge Wood, who was often referred to “Mr. Florence,” died April 3, 1891.  A grateful city renamed Market Street, a major thoroughfare, as Wood Avenue in his honor.

 

     His gravestone in the Florence Cemetery has this inscription: “Citizen, Soldier, Christian.  A leader in family, state, and church.  After the storm and toil of life, he, beloved, rests in peace.” These simple words are as a commentary of the eventful life of William Basil Wood, Confederate Colonel, Lauderdale County Judge, and Methodist Preacher.  

WILLIAM BASIL WOOD

Judge, Attorney, Confederate Colonel, and founder of Sunday School in Florence 1843.

GENERAL STERLING ALEXANDER MARTIN WOOD

     Brigadier General Sterling Alexander Martin Wood was the only Florence, Alabama-born general to serve in the Civil War.  A son of Florence’s first mayor, two of his brothers, Colonel William Basil Wood and Major Henry Clay Wood, were also in the Confederate Army.

 

    Sterling A. M. Wood began his military career as captain of the Florence Guards, the first volunteers to leave Florence for military duty.  The Official Records show that as early as April 3, 1861, Captain Wood was guarding the entrance to Fort Morgan near Mobile. Forty-five days later, he was promoted to full colonel and placed in command of the newly organized 7th Alabama Infantry.  Within eight months he was promoted to brigadier general and assigned to the army being concentrated under General Albert Sidney Johnston.          

     General Wood led his men in four of the most fiercely-fought battles in the western theatre:  Shiloh, Perryville, Murfreesboro, and Chickamauga.  Shiloh, among other things, was a battle of inexperienced warriors.  Wood’s brigade of about 2,000 men came under heavy fire from the enemy as well as from two nearby Confederate regiments.  In a desperate attempt to stop the firing from the friendly regiments, Wood was accidentally caught under his own horse and dragged among the tents which disabled him “for some three hours.”

 

     General Wood was wounded in the Battle of Perryville.  This was noted in the Official Report submitted by General William Joseph Hardee:  “The loss sustained in the battle was severe - 242 killed and 1,500 wounded… Brig. Gen. Wood was severally wounded in the head by the fragment of a shell;  his quartermaster, commissary, and assistant adjutant-general were killed, and the three colonels next in rank were wounded…”            

     Wood had recovered enough by December 31, 1862, to lead his seriously decimated brigade at Murfreesboro.  An additional 504 of his men were “killed, wounded, or captured,” during this battle.

 

     Following Murfreesboro, Wood was placed in command of the District of North Alabama with headquarters in Florence where he remained until June 1863.  During this time, between May 26 - 31, 1863, General Wood, with about 500 men and two artillery pieces, was placed in an awkward position of defending Florence against a superior force of cavalrymen led by Colonel Florence M. Cornyn from Corinth.  Although Cornyn prevailed, he reported that General Wood “seemed disposed to dispute every mile of the road.”         

     The Battle of Chickamauga was an important Confederate victory; however, the tremendous losses encountered proved crippling for the Southern cause.  Wood’s casualties were unusually heavy, according to the report submitted by General Patrick Ronayne Clebune: “…Polk’s brigade and the right of Wood’s encountered the heaviestartillery fire I have ever experienced…” General Wood reported the loss of 776, including the deaths of four field officers.

 

     General Wood resigned his commission following the Battle of Chickamauga and joined his family in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  Because of Wood’s high rank, his family had undergone considerable harassment during the federal occupations of Florence.  Sterling Alexander Martin Wood died January 26, 1891, and was buried in Tuscaloosa.   

BRIGADIER GENERAL

STERLING ALEXANDER MARTIN WOOD, C.S.A. 

THE GENERAL’S CAMP MAN

     Harrison Wood was in the bloody battles of Shiloh, Perryville, and Stone River.  As one of the local African-Americans to wear the Confederate gray, he served as camp man for Brigadier General Sterling Alexander Martin Wood, commander of the 7^th Infantry      Brigade.  His primary duties could be compared, in some ways, to that of “general’s orderly” in the modern army.

 

     Harrison, born in Virginia, was only twelve years old when he was acquired by Florence’s first mayor, Alexander Hamilton Wood.  Harrison was trained as an apprentice in Mayor Wood’s furniture shop and soon became one of the town’s most respected house painters.  Mayor Wood established a partnership with Harrison, allowing the young painter to negotiate his own contracts, with provisions that they jointly share in the profits.         

     Harrison grew up with the Wood boys, William Basil, Sterling A. M., and Henry Clay.   All three brothers became officers in the Confederate Army, and at times all three served under the same brigade banner.  Sterling was the first of the three to enter the     army;  he was soon elevated to the rank of Brigadier General, 7^th Infantry Brigade.

 

     Harrison Wood was one of ten African-Americans in the estate of Alexander H. Wood, following the former mayor’s death in November, 1860.  In less than six months, Harrison was selected by Captain Sterling A. M. Wood as his camp man which took him to distant places where he participated in a number of fiercely-fought battles.         

     It was after the night of January 3, 1863, as General Braxton Bragg began his withdrawal from Tullahoma, that Harrison Wood suddenly found himself within federal lines.  This was following the Battle of Stone River, or Murfreesboro, where General Wood’s brigade had formed a part of General Patrick Cleburne’s Division in General William Joseph Hardee’s Corps.

 

     For all practical purposes, the war was over for Harrison Wood. Nine months later, following the Battle of Chickamauga, Brigadier General Sterling Alexander Martin Wood resigned his commission and joined his family in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.         

     When Harrison Wood, returned to Florence, he was given a piece of land by Judge William Basil Wood.  The Judge, it was said, did the same for all of his and his father’s former servants.  According to a paper entitled “Servants of the Confederacy: Lauderdale County’s Black Confederates,” by Lee Freeman of the Florence/Lauderdale Public Library, this land may have been located near the present Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital, or perhaps in North Florence.   

 

     Harrison Wood’s obituary appeared in the January 9, 1895, edition of the FLORENCE TIMES, under the caption: “An Old Landmark Gone.” The 81-year-old African-American’s death notice was beautifully editorialized and ended with these words:  “Such a man is worthy of a kind remembrance in the hearts of our people.  One of the oldest, and in his humble way, the best landmarks of the city has gone.  May he rest in peace.” 

Dr. William L. McDonald

 

 

The Civil War Tales of the Tennessee Valley

Copyright 2003 by

Bluewater Publications

The Civil War stories found in Dr. McDonald’s Civil War Tales of the Tennessee Valley, can be found at Amazon.com or  http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0971994676/ref=dp_olp_0/103-3940205-0330202?ie=UTF8&qid=1187314598&sr=8-1&condition=all

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