David Wood was born on August 25, 1851 to Samuel and Margaret Wood, at Mount Gilead, Ohio. In 1854, Samuel moved his family to the Kansas Territory to help the “Free Staters” keep slavery out of the region. In April 1861, Samuel raised a company for the 2nd Kansas Infantry and served as their captain. He fought at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, and then raised a battalion which became part of the 6th Missouri Cavalry.

While stationed at Rolla, Samuel was joined by his family, including his ten-year-old son David, who repeatedly but unsuccessfully begged his father to take him on his frequent scouting trips. On one such trip, however, Samuel, sensing something was happening behind him, turned and found David riding on a pony in the center of a group of soldiers.

David later described the incident:

“He didn’t say much to me. I guess he realized he might as well yield to the inevitable. From then on he kept me with him, and on January 1, 1862, at Rolla, I was regularly enlisted. My duties were principally that of an orderly, carrying dispatches here and there and sometimes going where grown men could not go.”

David later became desperately ill with malaria and pneumonia, and Colonel Wood was forced to leave his son with a farm family. Although Samuel feared he would never see his son alive again, David received good care, recovered, and was retrieved by his father and returned to Council Grove, Kansas, ending his career in the army.

Tintype by Unknown Photographer

Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 32082