Justice William Burnham Woods, of the United States
Supreme Court, who died in Washington, May 14, 1887, was born in Newark,
Ohio, August 3, 1824. He graduated at Western Reserve College, Hudson,
Ohio, in 1841, and from Yale in 1845, being the valedictorian at Yale.
Two years later he was admitted to the bar and his oratorical powers attracted
such attention that he was elected mayor of Newark in 1855, and sent to
the Ohio Legislature in 1857 as a Democrat, being speaker in 1858-9.
As the leader on the Democratic side, April 18, 1861, he succeeded in supporting
the war loan to put Ohio on the defensive and had the vote made unanimous.
In the following November he became lieutenant-colonel of the Seventy-sixth
Ohio regiment. He served until the war closed, when he was mustered
out with the rank of brigadier-general and brevet major-general.
He was mustered out in Alabama, where he located and was a leading Republican.
Returning to legal duties and political life, he was chosen a state chancellor
for six years, but after serving in this position for two years was appointed
circuit judge of the United States Court for the Fifth district, which
office he held while residing in Mobile for a number of years. His
promotion to the United States Supreme Court was made by President Hayes
in 1880, and this position he filled most satisfactorily. He participated
in the battles of Chickasaw Bayou, Arkansas Post (in which he was slightly
wounded), Resaca, Dallas, Atlanta (July 22 and 28 ), Jonesboro, Lovejoy
Station and Bentonville, and in the sieges of Vicksburg and Jackson and
in many minor affairs and skirmishes.
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