Background
William Woodford was born on October 6, 1734, in Caroline County, Virginia, United States. He was the son of Major William and Anne Cocke Woodford.
William Woodford was born on October 6, 1734, in Caroline County, Virginia, United States. He was the son of Major William and Anne Cocke Woodford.
William Woodford received the normal education for a young Virginian of the better class.
On January 1, 1774, William Woodford was elected a member of the committee of correspondence of Caroline County, and on December 8, a member of the committee to enforce the "Association." From July 17 to August 9, 1775, he sat as alternate to Edmund Pendleton in the Virginia Convention. On August 5 he was appointed colonel of the 3rd Regiment, and on October 25 his troops repulsed an attempt on the part of Governor Dunmore's men to burn Hampton. Shortly thereafter he was directed by the Virginia committee of safety to proceed with his regiment and the Culpeper militia to the vicinity of Norfolk for the purpose of keeping Dunmore's movements under observation. The order meant "the passing over in favor of a subordinate commander of Patrick Henry, colonel of the 16t Regiment and ranking officer of the Virginia forces." As a consequence, a warm dispute arose between Henry and Woodford regarding the scope of their respective commands. On December 9 Woodford defeated more than three hundred Loyalists, convicts, and negro slaves, and two hundred British regulars at Great Bridge, thereby compelling Dunmore to evacuate Norfolk and take refuge on board ship.
In the meantime, two hundred North Carolina troops under Colonel Robert Howe had arrived. Although Howe outranked Woodford, the two officers exercised joint command over their combined forces during the subsequent operations about Norfolk. Upon the recommendation of the Virginia Convention, the Continental Congress on February 13, 1776, appointed Woodford colonel of the 2nd Virginia Regiment. On February 21, 1777, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general. He fought at Brandywine (where he was wounded), at Germantown, and at Monmouth, and shared the sufferings of the patriots at Valley Forge.
In 1778 and 1779 William Woodford was with the Continental Army in New Jersey. On December 13, 1779, Washington ordered him to proceed with a detachment of seven hundred men to the aid of Charleston, then besieged by the British. Going from Morristown to the Elk River, Woodford journeyed by water to Williamsburg, and thence overland to Charleston, where he arrived on April 17, 1780, having made a march of five hundred miles in twenty-eight days. Upon the capture of the town by Sir Henry Clinton on May 12, 1780, Woodford was made prisoner. He was taken to New York, where he died and was buried in Old Trinity Church Yard.
In 1774 Woodford was a member of the county committee of correspondence and of the committee to enforce the Association.
In June 1762 Woodford married Mary Thornton, the daughter of George Washington’s first cousin Mildred Gregory.