Preface:
The following case summary provides a glimpse of life during the time of slavery and the relationships that endured between freedmen and former slaveholders. It also highlights legal changes after the Civil War that needed to be changed to protect free and formerly enslaved people.
Private William Wood, Substitute Soldier, Company “D” 39th Regiment, U.S. Colored Infantry
By Dave Cavanaugh
William Wood was owned by Alex Chapman, near Salem (now Marshall), Fauquier County, Virginia. “He was described as rather slight in build and of medium height and was a field hand while a slave.” (Susan Wood Affidavit-6 May, 1878)
Shortly after 1st Manassas, William Wood fled to the Alexandria area which was under the control of Union forces. He worked as a laborer and teamster in the Arlington Heights and Alexandria areas. For periods of time he lived in Alexandria.
On 2 July 1864, William enrolled as a substitute soldier at Baltimore, Maryland in Company “D”, 39th Regiment of the U.S. Colored Troops Volunteers. He was paid to enlist as a substitute soldier for Henry Schaufiell. William was 35 years old (born 1829) and described as being 5’ 7’ with a “yellow” complexion.
In August 1864 he joined his company at Petersburg, Virginia. For three weeks he was building “breastworks in a marshy area and soon caught a severe cold” (General Affidavit, Mary Jane Lewis, William Wood’s sister, 27 July 1877). He was sent to the military hospital (September 26, 1864) at City Point and as his condition worsened, he was transported back to Alexandria and sent to the “colored” hospital, L’Overture. He died January 19, 1865 and is buried in the Alexandria National Cemetery. The record of his death and internment listed him as being married and previously living in Alexandria.
Widow’s Pension
Kitty Ann Brooks
On 3 May 1865, Kitty Ann Brooks applied for a widow’s pension claiming to be the wife of William Wood who fathered a son Robert Wood born March 31, 1863. She was about 30 years old at the time of her application.
In a sworn statement, she states they belonged to the same man (Alex Chapman) as slaves “and it was then they first lived together”. Soon after the war broke out he left Fauquier County and went to Alexandria, Virginia where he worked for the Government. She later made her way to Alexandria and they occasionally lived together but were never married”. In her statement she claims William took her to a house near the Seminary where they lived for two or three months. Conflicting accounts indicate William lived with Kitty and later they moved to a “shanty” William had built in Alexandria where they lived until William enlisted.
She learned William was at L’Overture Hospital in Alexandria and visited him before he died.
On 3 May 1865 Kitty was granted a pension of $8.00 per month. In June, 1871, she was granted an increase of $2.00 per month for support of her son Robert. Later it was discovered she was living with Charles Jones in Alexandria, Virginia and in September 1877 her pension was ended.
Susan Moore Wood
On 26th July 1877, Susan Wood, a resident of Washington, D.C., submitted a claim for widow’s pension. Born in 1824, she was now 53 years of age.
Prior to the Civil War, she worked as a slave on the Richard Rixey property not far from Salem, Virginia, present day Marshall in Fauquier County. She was Judith Rixey’s maid. Judith’s father died in 1842 and in 1850 was 19 years old, living with her brother in law Ducater B. Hall, his wife Louisa and her mother Penelope Rixey (1788-1872).
In an affidavit, George Jenkins, an illiterate enslaved black preacher recalls marrying William and Susan Wood. He (George Jenkins) “was a slave of Col. Geo. Love… and had a license to preach and perform the marriage ceremony from his said master who was clerk of the church (Baptist) at Long Branch near Salem Va. Sometime about the year 1844 and in one of the spring months, deponent (George Jenkins) joined said Wm. Wood and Susan Moore in the bonds of matrimony at the house of Mr. Richard Rixey near Salem.”
William and Susan were owned by different masters. William lived some 5 miles away from where Susan lived. Witnesses recall that William would come twice a week to see Susan, staying weekends before returning home on Monday mornings. Reportedly they had 8 children. Mrs. Louisa Hall, a daughter of Richard Rixey, provided the names and dates of birth of Susan’s four children, less than 16 years of age at the time of Williams death. Children listed include, Charlotte Wood, born July 4, 1851, Douglass Wood, born April 18, 1853, Turner Wood, born April 1, 1855 and who had recently died, and Georgiana Wood, born May 11, 1857.
In the fall of 1861, after the Battle of First Manassas there was a growing fear for the safety of woman and children. Judith Rixey took Susan, two other servants and 6 children to Athens, Georgia where they stayed for six months. They then moved to Atlanta, Georgia where they lived for one year. With Confederate losses mounting, they moved to Charleston, South Carolina for three months and to Augusta Georgia.
During the time of her trip from Athens and return to Augusta Judith Rixey left. Susan was hired out as the nurse or servant of the wife of Mr. John Ansley-who was a Quarter Master with the Confederate Army. The family split up the second year after the surrender and Susan then went to live with Mrs. Jane Wilcox, a widow and sister of Mrs. Ansley residing near Augusta Georgia.
Ms. Judith Rixey is believed to have gone to England and later moved to California. A notation on the Rixey Family Tree for Judith Rixey: “She was a great traveler.”
Susan learned that William died during the war from Decater Hall, Judith’s brother-in-law.
Susan’s claim for pension was based on statements from friends and family that she and William had been married by Pastor Jenkins and that he had fathered her children. George claimed to be a licensed preacher and recalled marrying William Wood and Susan Moore sometime during the spring of 1844. In 1878 he lived in the District of Columbia and was employed as a porter in the “25 cent store”, 7th St above H in the District of Columbia.”
During this time, Susan was living with her son Douglass Wood near the Episcopal Seminary, near Alexandria, Virginia. Her daughter in law, Matilda Wood later testified that Susan had no means of support except “which she makes by washing and ironing.”
Sworn depositions were provided by friends, family and acquaintances. The depositions were taken in 1878, thirteen years after the Civil War. As a consequence, the memory of dates and the sequence of events are unclear and at times contradictory.
Former slaves testified they were acquainted with William and Susan Wood and they were considered man and wife.
Helen Beale a slave belonging to Alex Chapman testified she belonged to Alex Chapman and knew William Wood and Kitty Brooks. “It was well known…that said William had a wife named Susan Moore, who was a slave of the Rixey family near Salem, Va.”
Fannie Steward, William Wood’s cousin, testified she knew William and Kitty Ann Brooks while they lived at the Chapman plantation. Fannie went to Alexandria to help Kitty care for their child, Robert. She believed they lived as husband and wife before his enlistment.
Mrs. Annie King, a slave of Mrs. Richard Rixey and daughter of George Jenkins, knew Susan Wood to be the wife of William Wood “who was a slave of Mr. Chapman, near White Plains, Va.” In her statement she recalls “William was a drinking man…and kept company with two woman who belonged to Mr. Chapman; these two woman were named Kitty Ann Brooks and “Muity Ann” …both these woman were very dark and that they both called said William Woods “cousin William”, they both were considered lewd women and neither were known as his wife.”
Mrs. Catherine Johnson, the mother of William Wood and now 70 years old, testified to the marriage of her son to Susan Moore and that she attended the wedding at “Richard Rixey’s place.” She knew Kitty Ann Brooks, a slave of Mr. Chapman, but did not know she had lived with William and “had a child by him.”
Eliza T. Morehead and Louisa Hall, daughters of Richard Rixey the former slaveholder also provide information as to the marriage and the names and ages of children born to Susan who would have been 16 years of age at the time of William’s death. At the end of the war, widows were paid an extra $2.00 a month until the child reached the age of 16 or the widow remarried.
In 1878, Susan’s claim for a widow’s pension was denied. The Special Agent’s report found the “marriage laws of Virginia did not contemplate or include Negroes, not even free Negroes.” At the time William joined the army Susan was away and they were not living as man and wife. Instead, the evidence showed that William was living with Kitty Brooks in Alexandria and they had a child. Co-habitation at the time of enlistment was sufficient to show that William and Kitty were living as man and wife.
The law was changed with the act of February 27, 1866. The new law recognized that colored people living together as man and wife prior to the passage of the act would be considered to be married and their children deemed legitimate.
Susan Wood would later appeal the decision. In August 1891 her claim was rejected again.
Years Later
In 1933, Georgia C. Smith, 215 W. 138th St, New York City wrote a letter to the Veterans Administration, Pension Service claiming to be William Wood’s youngest daughter and asking if the government “can do a little something for his only child living”. She identifies herself as Georgia, born in 1857 and the daughter of William Wood, “that no one in the family received any pension as a result of William’s death and that she has a picture in uncle sam’s uniform with gun and on picket.”
The letter in reply from the Director of Pensions dated April 17, 1933 states:
“The claim of Susan Wood, who appears to have been your mother, was rejected August, 1891 on the ground that she was not the legal widow of the soldier. The soldier’s legal widow, Kitty A Wood, was pensioned until her remarriage when her name was dropped from the rolls in 1878.”
Summation
The time of slavery is hard to imagine. It is anathema to our moral sensibilities that 3.5 million African Americans were enslaved prior to the Civil War. But the people who lived during that period were able to survive a war, the economic devastation and the impacts on free and formerly enslaved families. They maintained contacts and relationships that helped support each other. Although efforts to obtain a pension failed, the case demonstrates a collective effort on the part of family and friends to seek justice and assist Susan Wood in obtaining financial support as the wife of William Wood.
