S . A . M . Wood Sterling Alexander Martin Wood ( March 17 , 1823 – January 26 , 1891 ) commonly referred to as S . A . M . Wood , was an American lawyer and newspaper editor from Alabama . He served as a Confederate general during the American Civil War until 1863 , and resumed practicing law , served as a state legislator , and later taught law . Early life and career . Wood was born in Florence , Alabama , in the spring of 1823 . He attended St . Joseph College in Kentucky in 1841 , and then moved to Tennessee and became a lawyer there . In 1851 Wood returned to Alabama , where he served in the state legislature . Wood also held the position of " solicitor " of Alabama ' s fourth judicial court from 1851 to 1857 . He was editor of Florence ' s " Gazette " newspaper in 1860 , during which he actively supported John C . Breckinridge ' s unsuccessful bid for President of the United States . Civil War . Early service . Wood chose to follow his home state of Alabama and the Confederate cause , and entered the state forces as a captain in the Alabama state forces as part of the " Florence Guard " on April 3 , 1861 . He was elected colonel of the 7th Alabama Infantry Regiment on May 18 , and Wood and his regiment then served in Pensacola , Florida . Wood was then given brigade command in the Western Theater in October 1861 , joining the Army of Central Kentucky . He was promoted to brigadier general on January 7 , 1862 . Wood then commanded a brigade in the Army of Mississippi during the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee on April 6 , 1862 , and was wounded when his horse dragged him . Perryville . Wood ' s most notable Confederate service came on October 8 , 1862 , when he and his brigade fought at Perryville , Kentucky , in the Battle of Perryville . His brigade was part of Maj . Gen . Simon B . Buckner ' s division in Maj . Gen . William J . Hardee ' s II Corps and participated in Buckner ' s attack on a Union position . The Confederates desired to force the Federals back and cut off their escape route at the Dixville Crossroads , effectively surrounding them . Union infantry and an artillery battery posted on a hill close to the Benton Road shot up Wood ' s men and forced them back to fall back . Wood reformed his brigade at the base of the hill and renewed the assault . The Federal guns ran low on ammunition and withdrew , and the Confederate attack pushed the Union infantry back towards the crossroads . After the charge Wood ' s men withdrew and were replaced by Brig . Gen . St . John Richardson Liddell ' s reserve brigade . In this fight Wood was wounded in the head and would be out of action until November , by which the Army of Mississippi was now called the Army of Tennessee . Remaining campaigns . Wood resumed command of his brigade on November 20 , 1862 , and fought in the Army of Tennessee ' s campaigns during the rest of 1862 and into 1863 , including the bloody Battle of Stones River at year ' s end , throughout the Tullahoma Campaign in the summer of 1863 and the Battle of Chickamauga that September . However Wood resigned his commission on October 17 , just prior to the Battles for Chattanooga in November . Postbellum . Wood resumed his law practice following his resignation from the Confederate Army , and would be pardoned by the U . S . Government after the war on November 4 , 1865 . He then served in again in the Alabama Legislature , and was a professor of law at the University of Alabama from 1889 to 1890 . Wood also was the attorney for the Alabama Great Southern Railway from its beginnings in 1877 until his death . In early in 1891 at the age of 67 , Wood died and was buried in Tuscaloosa , Alabama .