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Murray, Young: The enigma of Confederate Gen. S.A.M. Wood

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By R. Smith Murray and Chris Young 4 min read

photo Gen. S.A.M. Wood

View our Civil War Sequicentennial site

Confederate Gen. Sterling Alexander Martin Wood, commonly known as S.A.M. Wood, resigned from the Confederate Army in October 1863. The resignation came shortly after the South’s greatest victory in the West, the battle of Chickamauga, in which Wood had been an active participant.

So why did he resign?

Was it because he was incompetent, or because he was once accused of cowardice? Or for reasons we will never truly know?

Before the Civil War, Wood had been a lawyer, a state legislator and a journalist in Alabama. He entered the Confederate Army in 1861 and rose to the rank of brigadier general within a year.