Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1864-10-01
The Career of n Guerilla.

quarter OF century since the writer of
this used to see daily bright, curly headed
boy, of some eight or ten years of age play
ing under the proudly y-arching elms in front
of his fathers residence, in the Tontne
Block, facing the Green, in New Haven,
Connecticut. This was the second son of
the late Thomas Green Woodward, the
lsrge-hearted editor of the New Haven Her.
aid. Through his fathers influence a cadets
warrant was procured for young Woodward
and he entered the Military Academy at
West Point from the New Haven District.
His immediate predecessors from the same
district were Colonel Fred. Myers of the
Quartermaster's Department; Gen. Horatio
G. Wright, Gen. Henry Benham, and at an
earlier date, e. d. Mansfield, ESQ.,, Commits
sioner of Statistics for Ohio. Some sixteen
years since, one night while endeavoring to
quell disturbance occasioned by party of
rowdy students, Tutor Dwight of Yale Col
lege, received mortal blow from an uu-
known hano, with the iron bar of window
shutter. He fingered short time, and died
greatly lamented for his extraordinary mo-
raj worth and fine intellect. Young Wood.
ward was at this time at home on furlough,
and according to popular rumor, was the
guilty party who dealt the fatal blow. How
this may have been, we know not; but he
never returned to West Point, and disap-
peared altogether from that section of coun-
try. Where he went was a mystery. 1t was
reported he had left the United States. 1t
now appears that he fed to Hopkinsville,
in southwestern Kentucky, figured there as
schoolmaster and at one time edited the
county paper. In August, 1861, he raised
the first and only rebel regiment in the
county. A year later, their time being out,
he, with some of the regiment, returned to
Hopkinsville. lie remained few weeks,
left, and again soon re-entered the town
with forty men and flag of truce. He de-
mended its surrender, stating he was back
ed by five hundred men. Finding the citi-
zens determined on resistance, he left, and
with eight hundred more new recruits,
which he gathered, he went South. After
two years more of fighting, he made his ap-
pearance on the outskirts of Hopkinsville,
just past midnight, on Thursday of last
week, August 18th This time he was at
the head of two hundred guerilas. They
came on, yelling like demons, and, dashing
into the town, got rs far as the Courthouse
when they met with SO warm a resistance
from about sixty of the 52d Kentucky, that
they returned to the suburbs. The Court
House bell rung the alarm the citizens as
sembled for defence, the rebels again attack
ert, and were again driven off. At daylight
they attempted q third charge, w Woodward
failed to rally his men. He rode several
rods in advance of his hand, and was in the
act of firing his pistol when his horse was
shot, and he fell mortaly wounded on the
very SPOT where, October 1st, 1861, he halt
ed his men when he came in with General
BuCkner. He was carried into an adjacent
store, and, after two hours of agony, ex
pired. Thus died young man of brilliant
capacities, who might have been an homo:
to his native State. But his easily career. it
seems but too sldly presagcd his ignomini-
Gus traitorous end.
We find the above iii one Of our exchanges
and have a few words to add in illustration
of the adage that 1.-The boy is father to the
man" Young Woodward, for time, was
sent to the Episcopal Academy at Cheshire
Connecticut, where he manifested in boy
hood those vicious traits that exhibited
themselves in manhood. AS a youth he was
decided guerrilla" and Ex-Governor Foote
Gather of the late AdmiraD often complain
ed OF dcpredations committed by young
Woodward. With his companion Tom had
reputation for viciouSness and violence
seldom manifested in one so young. When
his passions were reused he did not hesitate
! to use any weapon that came to hand. so
| frequent were his encounters with school
mates and village boys, that the principal
of the school was finally obliged to ask his
parents to take him away. After the homi
! eide referred to, Woodward went to Charles
ton, S. C., where he got into difficulty,
was shot and wounded. He fled to Texas,
and finally settled in Kentucky. His subse'
ouent career, rs above narrated, is in accord
ance with his youthful character, and many
of his companions, who will read this ac-
count of Woodward's death, can bear wit
ness that his early exploits fifty ended in @
violent death at Hopkinsville, Kentucky
" y. Sun.