Background
Wood spent his youth at the seashore village of Pocasset, Massachussets, where his father had sought surroundings favorable to the cure of an illness (malaria) contracted during Civil War service.
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Leonard Wood
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Education
The boy led a frugal, outdoor life, going to the district school, being tutored for two years by Miss Jessie Haskell, who greatly influenced his character, and attending Pierce Academy, Middleboro.
Despite financial handicaps, he completed the course creditably, and after a short and stormy interneship at Boston City Hospital received his M. D. in 1884.
Career
He tried private practice in Boston, found it unattractive and unremunerative, and decided to seek commission in the Army Medical Corps.
In 1895 he was transferred to Washington.
In June 1897 he met Theodore Roosevelt and the two men were instantly drawn together.
The necessity and morality of war with Spain stood high among the convictions which united them.
Wood led the regiment in the first clash, Las Guasimas, June 24, 1898.
The town was notoriously filthy and disease-ridden.
In addition he found it starving from the siege.
The Cubans were hostile toward their late enemies, the Spaniards, and suspicious of American intentions.
He applied the policies developed in the city to the larger area with such success that, in December 1899, he was appointed military governor of Cuba, in succession to Maj. -Gen.
John R. Brooke [q. v. ].
At this juncture, when Leonard Wood was about to become a national and international figure, his traits and character were fully developed.
His patriotism was strongly nationalistic.
He felt that, for both Cuba and the Philippines, the happiest destiny would be permanent inclusion in the United States; but his honesty demanded that this come about through their own volition.
He appreciated wealth, but did not regard it as important.
His ability, sincerity, and charm of manner bound men as individuals to him.
As military governor of Cuba his term lasted until May 20, 1902.
In this period the affairs of the island were thoroughly stabilized and organized.
Railroads were chartered and regulated.
The integrity of Wood's administration was as high as its efficiency.
A generation after his departure, his was probably the American name most honored and respected by the Cubans.
For Wood a short stay in the United States and a visit to Europe followed.
In 1903 he was sent to the Philippines as governor of the Moro Province, consisting of Mindanao and adjacent islands.
Though on a smaller scale, his problems were similar in scope to those in Cuba; but here he dealt with a semi-savage people and a primitive civilization.
By reason, persuasion, and fighting he pacified the province, inaugurated reforms, and brought about a relatively high degree of prosperity, though he has been criticized for his ruthlessness in stamping out Moro institutions (Buell, post, p. 112).
On Aug. 8, 1903, he was promoted major-general in the regular army.
On Feb. 4, 1901, he had been promoted brigadier-general in the regular army.
This advancement, involving his elevation from a captaincy in a staff corps had aroused serious resentment in the service.
Hearings Before the Committee on Military Affairs, 1904).
On Hanna's death the fight collapsed, and feeling in the army against Wood on this account diminished rapidly thereafter.
From Mindanao Wood went in 1906 to command the Philippine division of the army for two years and then returned to the United States.
His first problem was the subordination of the various bureaus of the War Department to the military hierarchy developed by the creation of a General Staff in 1903.
It resulted in the retirement of the latter and the substantial achievement of Wood's aims.
He sought also to organize the far-scattered regular army into a coherent force.
In this, though aided by the necessity of concentrating troops on the Mexican border, he was only partially successful.
He gave close attention to the provision of war material.
In 1914 he was reassigned to the Department of the East and engaged in the preparedness movement, with the Plattsburg training camps as its focus and some form of universal military service as his own ideal.
His activities frequently contravened the desires of the Wilson administration, brought him censure, and built up in Washington a distrust of his subordination.
John J. Pershing.
This decision on the part of the administration was obviously legitimate, and there flowed from it almost necessarily the implication that there was no appropriate subordinate position for Wood in France.
Unfortunately, after training the 89th Division at Camp Funston, Kansas, Wood was summarily and spectacularly relieved from its command on the eve of embarkation.
His activity in the preparedness agitation had made him widely known.
His nationalism struck a popular chord; and many regarded him as Woodrow Wilson's victim and Theodore Roosevelt's heir.
He came to the Chicago convention of 1920 with the largest single following of delegates, and developed a balloting strength in excess of 300; but his supporters were outmaneuvered on and off the convention floor.
Almost simultaneously Wood was offered and accepted the provostship of the University of Pennsylvania, subject to the demands of his Philippine mission.
In all these undertakings he was successful, despite strenuous and vociferous local opposition.
Numerous complaints were lodged against him in Washington by the parliamentary and independence groups of Filipinos, but he was sustained by the President and the Secretary of War.
In 1924 he helped to block American legislation for Philippine independence.
He had been troubled in particular by the recurrence of a tumor in his skull, the result of an accident at Santiago, Cuba, which pressed on his brain, inducing paralysis of the left side of his body.
Wood was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his services in the Apache campaign and received the Distinguished Service Medal after the World War.
He was decorated by four foreign governments and held numerous honorary degrees.
Its Facts and Fallacies (1916), of numerous articles, bearing chiefly on preparedness, and, with W. Cameron Forbes, of the Report of the Special Mission to the Philippines (1921).
[Hermann Hagedorn, Leonard Wood (2 vols. , 1931) is the authorized biography and lists most of the important articles about him.
During his presidential candidacy four uncritical biographies appeared: J. H. Sears, The Career of Leonard Wood (1919); E. F. Wood, Leonard Wood, Conservator of Americanism (1920); W. H. Hobbs, Leonard Wood, Administrator, Soldier and Citizen (1920); and J. G. Holme, The Life of Leonard Wood (1920).
See also N. Y. Times, Aug. 7, 1927; Army and Navy Journal, Aug. 13, 1927; Johnson Hagood, "General Wood as I Knew Him, " Saturday Evening Post, Oct. 22, Dec. 17, 1932.
The Wood Papers are deposited in the Lib.
of Cong. ]
Politics
In 1916 Wood had been a receptive candidate for the Republican nomination for the presidency, and following the war he openly sought his party's indorsement for the office.
Personality
Mentally he was equally energetic and his capacity for work seemed endless.
He was exceedingly ambitious.
Interests
Connections
In 1880 his father died; and Leonard, who had decided to adopt his profession, entered Harvard Medical School.
- married:
- A.
- Daughter:
- A.
- children:
- A.
- children:
- Charles
On Nov. 18, 1890, he had married Louisa A. Condit Smith of Washington, D. C. To them came in time three children, two sons and a daughter.
On Nov. 18, 1890, he had married Louisa A. Condit Smith of Washington, D. C. To them came in time three children, two sons and a daughter.
On Nov. 18, 1890, he had married Louisa A. Condit Smith of Washington, D. C. To them came in time three children, two sons and a daughter.
He was the first of three children of Charles Jewett and Caroline (Hagar) Wood, both of whom came from deep-rooted New England stock.
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Born
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Died
1927 (aged 67) -
Political Party
Republican