GEN. JAMES DEMPSEY WOOD (1923) Pulaski County, Arkansas Contributed by William Roy Bigger Jr. great-great-grandson <BarbBigger@msn.com> Date: 1 Feb 2002 ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net ************************************************************************ OBITUARY GEN. JAMES DEMPSEY WOOD- WELL KNOWN CONFEDERATE VETERAN DIES AT HOME HERE [Copied from Arkansas Gazette Newspaper, Little Rock, Ark. - 7 February 1923. By Wm. Roy Bigger, Jr.] General(1) James D. Wood, aged 77, former commander of the First Brigade, Arkansas Department, United Confederate Veterans, died at the family home(2), 1422 Gaines Street, at 10:25 o'clock yesterday morning. He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Maggie Wood; by four children, Surry Wood of Little Rock, Horace Wood of Cabot, Roy K. Wood of Augusta, and Mrs. Willie Westbrook of Stuttgart; by a brother, Judge Thaddeus A. Wood of Gulfport, Mississippi; and a sister, Mrs. Martha J. Culpepper of Houston, Texas. General Wood was a native of Missouri(3) and at the outbreak of the Civil War(4) enlisted in the 42nd Miss. Regiment, A. P. Hill's Corps(5) and saw action in several of the major combats. He was captured at Spotsylvania Courthouse during the Battle of the Wilderness and was held a prisoner at Fort Delaware for 13 months. Shortly after the close of the war General Wood came to Arkansas and settled in Old Austin(6), where he taught school for two terms before moving to Little Rock(7). Since then he has made his home here. He was a member of the Omer Weaver Camp, UCV, of Little Rock, and also of the local Pension Board(8). He formerly was a public miller, a ginner and a merchant at Warsaw(9). Funeral services will be held at the residence at 10 o'clock this morning in charge of he Rev. C.M. Reeves, pastor of the Winfield Memorial Church. Burial will be in Bayou Meto Cemetery near Jacksonville. Pallbearers will be: Honorary - Andrew Park, A.J. Snodgrass, Gregory Sherry, J.J. Tarleton, R.F. Reed and W. C. Younts; active - W.L. Ray, J.B. Dickinson, J.F. See, G.H. Kimball, Joe Blazer and James P. Sea. footnotes: 1. An honorary title, perhaps United Confederate Veterans; another obituary lists him as "Colonel". He was a private in the CSA. 2. Another obituary stated he died 10:00am at St. Vincent's Infirmary, which is more likely true. Family history: he told Maggie (wife) to prepare his uniform because he would need it "next Tuesday"; he was buried in his uniform. Also, Mary Sue Wood Godfrey remembers the home as being located at the corner of Arch & ??. (Arch & Gaines parallel) 3. Mississippi. Born 16 April, 1847 in Noxubee county, Miss; moved to Smith County 4. Enlisted Spring of 1864 and was captured three weeks later: 12 May 1864 at Spotsylvania, Va. "Battle of the Wilderness"; 20 May 1864 he was put into Fort Delaware Prison where he was held until War's end and discharged 12 June 1865. His prison record shows him to be a Private in Co H, 16th Mississippi Regiment (Smith County). Obviously his only action was at "Bloody Angle", one of the bloodiest brawls in a bloody war - he had just turned 17 years of age. 5. General A. P. Hill was an uncle. J.D.'s older half-brother Thomas Hill was a CSA surgeon and was in the same Yankee Prison with J.D. (Fort Delaware). Note: J. D. Wood NEVER referred to the "Civil War"; it was, and is, correctly named the WAR BETWEEN THE STATES. 6. Taught at Sylvania School (or Institute?) at Sylvania, near the original town of Austin, Lonoke county, Ark. He had brought his mother and younger siblings from Miss. by mule & ox train in 1868 after his daddy died in 1867. They bought a farm in Bayou Meto Township near Old Warsaw (Jacksonville) in Pulaski County; J. D. taught in Sylvania/ Austin for two years and his mother ran the farm with hired hands. He probably brought a mill with him from Miss. 7. Probably moved to Little Rock around 1900. 8. Confederate Veterans Pensions 9. His store, gin, and mill were near the intersection of Hwy. 107 and Republican Road (or Peters Road) in present-day Jacksonville "behind the Airbase".