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Lot 78
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Confederate naval hero John Taylor Wood related war dated documents
Confederate naval hero John Taylor Wood related war dated documents
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Description:

Lee Robert 1807 - 1870 Letter Signed, "S B Mallory," as Secretary of the Confederate States Navy, 1 page, 7.5" x 9.5", Richmond, January 7, 1864 to Wood informing him that he had been promoted to the rank of Commander in the Navy. Offered together with (Robert F. Hoke), manuscript telegram, 1 page, 7" x 4", on "[T]HE SOUTHERN TELEGRAPH COMPANIES" letterhead, Kinston, [North Carolina], April 7, 1864 to John Taylor Wood, in cipher seeking information on the whereabouts of General Pickett. Mallory's letter features the usual folds with very light foxing, else fine; the telegram bears some marginal losses affecting printed text, minor partial fold separations, else very good. "You are hereby informed that the President has appointed you by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a Commander in the Navy of the Confederate States, to rank from the 23d day of August 1863, 'for gallant and meritorious conduct in boarding and capturing with an expedition under your command on the Rappahannock River, on the 3d day of August 1863, the United States gun-boats 'Satellite' and 'Reliance,' mounting two guns each.' You are requested to acknowledge the receipt of this appointment."

The second document is a communication from General Robert F. Hoke, who was then preparing to attack Union-held Plymouth, North Carolina. John Taylor Wood coordinated the attack from Richmond. Hoke's cyphered message is translated on the verso: "I am all ready. How are things progressing since you saw Genl Pickett" The following week, Hoke's forces, in cooperation with the CSS Albemarle, defeated the Union garrison at Plymouth, which surrendered. According to a report from Union General Henry Wessells, "Two comapnies belonging to the Second North Carolina (Union) Volunteers, were among the captured... the most of whom were taken out and show by the enmy after our forces had surrenderd. All the negroes found in uniform were also shot." ("The Capture of Plymouth", New York Times, April 26, 1864).

John Taylor Wood (1830-1904) , the son of Union General Robert Wood and Anne Taylor, the daughter of President Zachary Taylor, graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1852. Initially maintaining a neutral stance following the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, his sympathies headed South after the Battle of Fort Sumter. On April 21, 1861, he resigned his commission in the U.S. Navy and retired to his Maryland farm. The farming life did not last long, however, as life was becoming too dangerous. Fearing for the safety of his family, the Woods moved south to Richmond, Virginias where his uncle, Jefferson Davis, was now presiding over the Confederate capital (Jefferson Davis' first wife, Sarah Taylor, was Wood's mother's sister).

In October 1861, Taylor received a commission as a lieutenant in the Confederate States Navy and became an officer aboard the C.S.S. Virginia (the former U.S.S. Merrimack) and fought against he U.S.S. Monitor at the Battle of Hampton Roads. Wood commanded the rear pivot gun and fired the shot that wounded the Monitor's captain. Appointed an aide-de-camp to President Jefferson Davis, Wood was awarded the rank and pay of a colonel of cavalry, giving him simultaneous commands in both the Confederate Army and Navy allowing him to serve as an effective liaison between the services and the government in Richmond. In that capacity, Wood undertook an extensive survey of Confederate costal defenses. During the summer of 1863, he led a series of successful raids against Union shipping in Chesapeake Bay. In the summer of 1864, Wood commanded the C.S.S. Tallahassee, a raider and blockade runner. During his tenure aboard the Tallahassee, he captured an astounding 33 Union ships during a ten-day period off the coast of New England.

By April 1865, the situation looked grim for the Confederacy. Wood was with his uncle on April 2, attending St. Paul's Church in Richmond, when a telegram from Lee arrived informing the president that Petersburg would soon fall and the government must evacuate. That evening, he, Davis, and other members of the Confederate government boarded a train for Danville, Virginia. They continued their flight south, where, on May 10, 1865, near the town of Irwinsville, Georgia, Davis and Wood were both captured by Union forces. Wood soon made his escape, with his uncle's permission, by bribing one of his captors and hiding in a nearby swamp until the Federals and their prisoners left the area. Wood made his way south to Florida and met up with Major General John C. Breckinridge. Acquiring a small boat, Wood, Breckinridge, and several other men first attempted to row east to The Bahamas, but abandoned the plan and decided to instead make their way south toward Cuba. He managed to trade with a crew of Union deserters his boat for their slightly bigger sloop. They reached the north shore of Cuban on June 10. He remained in Cuba for two weeks before heading north to Canada, where his family soon joined him. Reunited, they settled in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and remained there for the rest of their lives. John Taylor Wood died on July 19, 1904.

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