Saturday, September 06, 2014

Benjamin S. Woods.

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Benjamin S. Woods.

Birth: May 28, 1845.
Death: June 22, 1902.

Parents:  Solomon Woods, ( 1815 - 1879 ), Lucy Shipley Woods, ( 1805 - 1860.

Wife: Jennie F. Woods.

Children: Ernest S. Woods, ( 1871 - 1934 ).

Burial Edgewood Cemetery, Nashua, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire.

Adjutant General Records.

New Hampshire eighth Infantry.

Benjamin S. Woods. Co. D., born Tyngsborough Massachusetts; Age 18; Residence Londonderry; Enlisted August 21, 1862; Mustered in August 27, 1862, as Private; Appointed Corporal; Transferred Co. A., Vet., Batt'l  S. N. H. V., January 1, 1865; Discharged June 6, 1865, Natches, Mississippi, P. O. address Nashua.

New Hampshire eighth Infantry Regimental History. 

Picture taken at enlistment.
Personal.  Comrade Benjamin S. Woods was born in Tyngsboro', Mass. Enlisted as a recruit in Company D, August 20, 1862, at the age of seventeen years. Joined the regiment at Camp Parapet, La., September 30, 1862, just in time to go in the Bayou La Fourche expedition and take part in the battle of Georgia Landing. Thenceforward he was in all the battles and skirmishes in which his company or regiment was engaged, up to his muster out at Natchez, Miss., on June 6, 1865. During all this time he was not wounded, although narrowdy escaping.

Some instances may be mentioned, as on May 27, 1863, at the first assault on Port Hudson, his file leader and two left hand comrades were shot dead. On the morning of the 14th of June, was struck in the forehead by a spent musket ball and late in the afternoon of the same day, while trying to procure water for some wounded comrades, he ran the gauntlet of the rebel sharpshooters, a whole volley being fired at him alone, through which he escaped unhurt.  At one of the severe skirmishes on the Red river, he exchanged places with a comrade, John Ryan, for a moment, but that moment was fatal to Ryan, a shot striking him in the head and killing him instantly.

After the war closed, he settled in Nashua and engaged in the grocery business. Joined John G. Foster Post, No. 7, G. A. R. in 1874. Was elected its commander in 1887 : was chief marshal on Memorial Day in 1888 ; was elected president of the Eighth New Hampshire Veterans' Association in 1886, and has held that office until the present time, 1891 ; also chosen treasurer of the Regimental Historical Association, helping in a large degree to raise the funds necessary to write and print this history of the
" Old Eighth."

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