Private Squire Woods
Pvt. Squire Woods
Private Squire Woods was born about 1819 in Franklin County, Virginia, and enlisted on May 1, 1863, in Lake Providence, Louisianna. Squire Woods was probably enslaved at the time he enlisted with the USCT. Military records described him as 43 years old, 5’6” tall with brown complexion, black eyes, and black hair. His occupation was recorded as farmer, and he enlisted for three years.
Woods served with 305 men in the 48th USCT Infantry, Co. C, and began his military service with garrison duty at Vicksburg, Mississippi. After garrison duty, Company C was on the move, on an expedition from Vicksburg to Rodney and Fayette in Jefferson County, Mississippi, between Sept. 29 to Oct. 3, 1864. They were one of several advancing Union Army units, including detachments from the 3rd USCT Calvary, 5th USCT Heavy Artillery, and the 50th USCT Infantry, all of which included men born in Franklin County
Woods fell ill just before his unit’s last major battle of the Civil War. He was marked sick in the hospital in Vicksburg in Feb. 1865 and then at a hospital at Fort Barrancas, in the Florida panhandle near Pensacola, in March and April. He probably would have taken part in a march south with his company between March 20 and April 1. But he may have been in the hospital when his company marched from Pensacola, Florida, to Blakely, Alabama, where the Siege of Fort Blakely occurred between April 1 and April 9. African Americans played a major role in the Siege of Fort Blakely, making up 5,000 of the 16,000 soldiers Brigadier General Edward Canby concentrated to breach Confederate earthworks in the last combined-force battle of the war. The Mobile Campaign was a series of battles fought by Union forces to capture the city of Mobile, Alabama, primarily focusing on the capture of Fort Blakely and Spanish Fort, which ultimately led to the fall of Mobile in April 1865, near the end of the war.
Pvt Woods might have participated in the occupation of Mobile on April 12 as he was marked present on April 30. His regiment served in Montgomery and Mobile until they were moved to New Orleans and Texas to serve along the Rio Grande until they mustered out. Woods was honorably discharged on Jan. 4, 1866. He was last paid $47.38 on June 30, 1865. Across those three years of service, the 48th Infantry lost a total of 527 men. Three officers and 59 enlisted men were killed in battle, but one officer and 464 enlisted men were killed by disease.
Squire Woods returned to the area where he enlisted, Carroll Parish, Louisiana, to work on a plantation as the foreman of a squad. He signed a labor contract negotiated by the Freedman’s Bureau during Reconstruction to work at Balfour Place Plantation from January to December 1866, to be paid $16 every month by the agents W.B. Denison and M.D. Landon. On May 1, 1866, Woods was asked to testify that another laborer, Stephen Washington, was not fulfilling his contract. Denison petitions the bureau to be able to release Washington from his job for “fail[ing] to comply with his contract in every particular” and states that he “can do nothing with him.” In Woods’ sworn statement, he described Washington as “a troublesome fellow who uses foul language and cusses and causes trouble in my squad.” Woods said Washington would “curse Denison and Landon in their absence.”
In 1870, Squire Woods was living at the home of a white woman, Victoria Primeau and her three children in St. Clair, Illinois. He was employed as a laborer. On September 25, 1876, he married Annie Whitfield, who was about 22 years old.
In 1880 Squire Wood was about 61 years old and was still working as a laborer in St. Clair. At this time, he and Annie have a three-year-old child, who was mistakenly listed as a son named William rather than a daughter, Lillian, in Census records.
In July 1890, Woods was living in Centerville Station, Illinois, and successfully applied for a pension. He received $12 a month until his death. A doctor testified that Woods had rheumatism in his legs and shoulders from performing manual labor. The doctor stated he could not walk without a cane. He also had debility from Dysentery and Erysipelas, a bacterial skin infection known as St. Anthony’s Fire. At the time of his pension application, Woods still expressed his name with a mark.
Woods, age 74, passed away on February 9, 1894, of “Debility (Senile)” in St. Louis, Missouri. The burial certificate indicates he was only in St. Louis for ten days before he died. He was buried in St. Louis, at the city cemetery.
In 1900, Annie Woods was listed as widowed and head of a household she rented in Ward 11, Chicago, Illinois, with her daughter Lillian, 23, and three lodgers named George Anderson, 43; Taylor Couts, 49; and Louis Dillworth, 35. Annie’s birthplace was Washington, D.C. and her parents were born in Maryland. Both Annie and Lillian were able to read and write. Lillian was employed as a schoolteacher.
Lillian died July 20, 1900, at age 23; the cause of her death was not specified.
Her mother, Annie Woods 1853-1914, is buried at Rosehill Cemetery and Mausoleum in Chicago. Her grave marker reads
MOTHER
Annie Woods
1853- 1914
Contributors: Sarah Plummer, Toni Smith and Cathie Cummins