THEODORE T. WOOD, LT, USN

Theodore Wood '68

Date of birth: February 20, 1847

Age: 38

Naval Academy Register

Theodore Talbot Wood was admitted to the Naval Academy from Morristown, New Jersey on September 29, 1864 at age 17 years 7 months.

Photograph from the collection of the Nimitz Library at the US Naval Academy.

Loss

Theodore died of "congestion of the liver, after an illness of two weeks" on January 8, 1886 while aboard "USS Swatara in Norfolk, Virginia."

Other Information

From records of the US Naval Academy Graduates’ Association:

THEODORE TALBOT WOOD, Graduate No. 831.
1864, September 29, appointed a Midshipman at the Naval Academy, and graduated June 2, 1863. 1868, September 12, ordered to the Contoocook. November 17, detached and ordered to the Franklin; transferred to the Guard, and detached from that vessel October 15, 1869, and placed on waiting orders. 1869, November 1, commissioned as Ensign, to rank from April 19, 1869. November 10, ordered to the Benicia. 1870, July 12, promoted to Master, to rank from date. 1871, May 13, detached from the Benicia and placed on sick leave. October 30, ordered to the Iroquois, and on arrival to the Asiatic Station; transferred to the Saco, and detached from that vessel October 4, 1874, and placed on waiting orders. 1874, December 9, commissioned as Lieutenant, to rank from April 2,1873. 1875, March 10, ordered to the Navy Yard, New York. August 12, detached and ordered to the Intrepid. 1877, August 1, detached and ordered to the Enterprise. September 26, detached and ordered to the Hartford. 1879, December 5, detached and placed on waiting orders, December 30, granted six months’ leave, with permission to go abroad. 1880, May 20, leave extended six months, December 1, ordered to the Navy Yard, Norfolk. 1882, December 16, detached and ordered to the Swatara. He died at Norfolk, Virginia, on the 8th of January, 1886.
Lieutenant Wood, whose death occurred at the Norfolk (Va.) Navy Yard on January 8, 1886, of typho-malarial fever, was appointed midshipman from Morristown, N. J., Sept. 29, 1864, graduating with a class of 81 in 1868.
His service record is an honorable one, and covers duty on the Contoocook, Franklin, Guard, Benicia, Iroquois, Saco, Intrepid, Enterprise, Hartford, and Swatara.
Lieutenant Wood was an officer of striking presence and manly bearing, attracting by his genial nature and cheerful disposition all who were associated with him. Among his intimate friends both in and out of the naval service the wholesome “brusqueness” of the humorous side of his disposition was very marked.
Lieutenant Wood, while on duty in the Asiatic Squadron, was sorely stricken with varioloid, having been detailed to attend the funeral services of an English naval officer who had died of a confluent form of said disease, and this dread scourge left him with the usual legacy, but with the partial compensation of a vigorous health, till his duty in the fever zone of Central America exposed him to its ravages, so that upon his arrival at the Norfolk Navy Yard and subsequent detail to the Swatara after her memorable trip from New Orleans in 1885 with the transfer of silver treasure thence to the North, his system soon developed the fatal fever on Dec. 27, 1885, and after a short but painful illness, attended by a devoted wife, he died, conscious to the end, carrying out with him into the world beyond the knowledge of having served his country well, even though it had been his lot to suffer, perhaps, many of the pangs which are as bitter as the wounds of battle.
As an early playmate and friend of Lieutenant Wood, a fellow-townsman, and contemporary with him at the Naval Academy from 1864 to 1867, I cheerfully contribute this record or sketch of the service and illness of one whom I took pleasure in knowing for so many years. Geo. Hurlburt Church, Class ’67 (U.S.N.A.)