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Leonard Wood
Leonard Wood
Leonard Wood October 9, 1860(1860-10-09) – August 7, 1927 (aged 66)
Chief of Staff of the United States Army, Military Governor of Cuba and Governor General of the Philippines. Early in his military career, he was awarded the Medal of Honor.
Biography
Early life and career
Born in Winchester, New Hampshire, he attended Pierce Academy in Middleborough, Massachusetts, and Harvard Medical School, earning an M.D. degree in 1884 as an intern at Boston City Hospital. He took a position as an Army contract physician in 1885, and was stationed at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. Wood participated in the last campaign against Geronimo in 1886, and was awarded the Medal of Honor, in 1898, for carrying dispatches 100 miles through hostile territory and for commanding an infantry detachment whose officers had been lost. While stationed at Fort McPherson in Atlanta, Georgia in 1893, Wood enrolled in graduate school at Georgia Tech, then known as the Georgia School of Technology, and became the school’s first football coach and, as a player, its team captain. Wood led the team to its first ever football victory, 28 to 6, over the University of Georgia.[1] Wood was personal physician to Presidents Grover Cleveland and William McKinley through 1898. It was during this period he developed a friendship with Theodore Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy. At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Wood, with Roosevelt, organized the 1st Volunteer Cavalry regiment, popularly known as the Rough Riders. Wood commanded the regiment in a successful engagement known as the Battle of Las Guasimas. When brigade commander, Samuel B. M. Young became ill, Wood received a field promotion to brigadier general of volunteers and assumed command of the 2nd Brigade, Cavalry Division, V Corps (which included the Rough Riders) and led the brigade to a famous victory at Kettle Hill and San Juan Heights.
Major General Leonard Wood in 1903 Place of birth Place of death Place of burial Allegiance Service/ branch Years of service Rank Commands held Battles/wars Awards Other work Winchester, New Hampshire Boston, Massachusetts Arlington National Cemetery United States of America United States Army 1885-1921 Major General Chief of Staff of the United States Army Spanish-American War Philippine-American War Medal of Honor Governor General of Cuba
Leonard Wood (October 9, 1860 – August 7, 1927) was a physician who served as the
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Leonard Wood
commander of the Philippines Division and later as commander of the Department of the East. He was promoted to major general in 1903, and served as governor of Moro province from 1903–1906. During this period, he was in charge of several bloody campaigns against Muslim Moro natives, including personally leading the Moro Crater massacre.
Army Chief of Staff
Staff of the 1st US Volunteer Regiment, the "Rough Riders" in Tampa - Wood is 2nd from right with LtCol Roosevelt far right. After San Juan, Wood led the 2nd Cavalry Brigade for the rest of the war; he stayed in Cuba after the war and was appointed the Military Governor of Santiago in 1898, and of Cuba from 1899–1902. In that capacity, he relied on his medical experience to institute improvements to the medical and sanitary conditions in Cuba. He also ordered the incarceration of Dr. Manuel M. Coronado, director of La Discusión newspaper and Jesus Castellanos, caricaturist of the newspaper because Jesus Castellanos drew a cartoon that was published on April, 12, 1901, in the Cuban paper La Discusión. The cartoon showed "The Cuban People" represented by a crucified Jesus Christ between two thieves, General Wood and American President William McKinley. Cuban public opinion was depicted by Mary Magdalene on her knees crying at the foot of the cross and Senator Platt, depicted as a Roman soldier, is holding a spear that says "The Platt Amendment" on it. Governor Wood, who saw in Castellanos’s drawing an unfriendly gesture toward the United States, had both men arrested for criminal libel and held in the Vivac prison of Havana, and the offices of La Discusión newspaper were sealed (Wood was persuaded to release them on the following day). He was promoted to brigadier general of regulars shortly before moving to his next assignment. In 1902, he proceeded to the Philippines, where he served in the capacity of
Wood had known Theodore Roosevelt well before the Spanish-American War. Wood was named Army Chief of Staff in 1910 by President Taft, whom he had met while both were in the Philippines; he remains the only medical officer to have ever held that position. As Chief of Staff, Wood implemented several programs, among which were the forerunner of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program, and the Preparedness Movement, a campaign for universal military training and wartime conscription. The Preparedness Movement plan was scrapped in favor of the Selective Service System, shortly before World War I. He developed the Mobile Army, thus laying the groundwork for American success in World War I. He created the General Staff Corps. In 1914, Wood was replaced as Chief of Staff by William Wotherspoon. Wood was a strong advocate of preparedness, which alienated him from President Wilson. With the US entry into World War I, Wood was recommended by Republicans, in particular Henry Cabot Lodge, to be the U.S. field commander; however, War Secretary Newton Baker
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instead appointed John J. Pershing, amid much controversy. During the war, Wood was, instead, put in charge of the training of the 10th and 89th Infantry Divisions, both at Camp Funston. In 1915, he published The Military Obligation of Citizenship, and in 1916 Our Military History.
Leonard Wood
Wood died in Boston, Massachusetts after undergoing surgery for a brain tumor. He had initially been diagnosed in 1910 with a benign meningioma brought on by exposure to experimental weapons refuse. This was successfully resected by Harvey Cushing at that time. The successful removal of Wood’s brain tumor represented an important milestone, indicating to the public the advances that had been made in the nascent field of neurosurgery, and extending Wood’s life by almost two decades. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Legacy
Maj. Gen. Leonard Wood in later years Wood was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in the election of 1920. He was urged into running by the family and supporters of his old friend Theodore Roosevelt, who had himself been considering another campaign before his illness and death in 1919. He won the New Hampshire primary that year, but lost at the convention. Among the reasons why he did not become the candidate were rivals for the nomination, his obvious political inexperience, and the strong support he gave for the anti-Communist strategy of Democratic Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer to defeat radical subversion. After the major candidates deadlocked, the nomination went to Warren G. Harding. He retired from the Army in 1921, and was made Governor General of the Philippines, in which capacity he served from 1921 to 1927. He was noted for his harsh, unpopular policies.
Wood’s actual field jacket from the Spanish American War seen in above photo - on display at the National Museum of American History Camp Leonard Wood in Missouri, now Fort Leonard Wood, home of the United States Army Combat Engineer School, Chemical School, Military Police School, and USAF 366 TRS Det 7 was named in his honor, as was the USS "Leonard Wood" (AP-25/APA-12). Leonard Wood Road in Baguio City, Philippines was named in his honor. Ft. Leonard Wood is also a major TRADOC post for Basic Combat Training (BCT), home of the 10th Infantry Regiment.
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Sporting positions Preceded by Casey Finnegan Military offices Preceded by John R. Brooke Preceded by J. Franklin Bell Political offices Preceded by Charles Yeater Governor-General of the Philippines 1921-1927 Military Governor of Cuba 1899-1902 Chief of Staff of the United States Army 1910–1914 Georgia Tech Head Football Coach 1893-1894
Leonard Wood
Succeeded by Rufus B. Nalley
Succeeded by none Succeeded by William W. Wotherspoon
Succeeded by Eugene Allen Gilmore
He is portrayed favorably in the 1997 miniseries "Rough Riders" by actor and former United States Marine Dale Dye. Leonard Wood was portrayed in a less favorable light by Mark Twain and others for his part in leading the Moro Crater massacre in 1906. A plaque in Wood’s memory is found in Harvard University’s Memorial Church.
Citations
[1] Byrd, Joseph (Spring 1992). "From Civil War Battlefields to the Moon: Leonard Wood". Tech Topics (Georgia Tech Alumni Association). http://gtalumni.org/ StayInformed/techtopics/spr92/ FOW.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
Other sources
• Hermann Hagedorn, Leonard Wood, a Biography 2 vol 1931 • Jack McCallum, Leonard Wood: Rough Rider, Surgeon, Architect of American Imperialism (2005) • Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), "Comments on the Moro Massacre" 1906
Medal of Honor citation
Voluntarily carried dispatches through a region infested with hostile Indians, making a journey of 70 miles in one night and walking 30 miles the next day. Also for several weeks, while in close pursuit of Geronimo’s band and constantly expecting an encounter, commanded a detachment of Infantry, which was then without an officer, and to the command of which he was assigned upon his own request.
External links
• Fort Leonard Wood’s website • Leonard Wood at Find A Grave Retrieved on 2008-02-01 Persondata NAME ALTERNATIVE NAMES SHORT United States Army Medal DESCRIPTION of Honor recipient DATE OF BIRTH October 9, 1860 Wood, Leonard
See also
• List of Medal of Honor recipients • List of Medal of Honor recipients for the Indian Wars
References
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PLACE OF BIRTH DATE OF DEATH Winchester, New Hampshire August 7, 1927 PLACE OF DEATH
Leonard Wood
Boston, Massachusetts
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Wood" Categories: Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football coaches, 1860 births, 1927 deaths, American physicians, Military physicians, Army Medal of Honor recipients, Deaths from brain cancer, Burials at Arlington National Cemetery, Cuba–United States relations, Governors-General of the Philippines, Colonial heads of Cuba, People from Boston, Massachusetts, People from New Hampshire, American military personnel of the Philippine-American War, American military personnel of the Spanish-American War, United States Army Chiefs of Staff, United States Army generals of World War I, United States presidential candidates, 1916, United States presidential candidates, 1920, Georgia Institute of Technology alumni, Harvard Medical School alumni, Cancer deaths in Massachusetts This page was last modified on 5 May 2009, at 02:51 (UTC). All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) taxdeductible nonprofit charity. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers
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Medal of Honor
Leonard Wood
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