Aaron Woods

Aaron was named after his father and was the oldest child, with Mary (named after her mother) born three years later and Emily following in another two years. Both parents came from Ireland to Philadelphia to escape the great famine that plagued that country in the 1840s.

Mary and her children had to live for a time without Aaron Sr. after he was drafted by the Union Army during the Civil War. He was mustered in at age 39 on August 29, 1863, having missed the bloodiest battles of recent months. With the 90th Pennsylvania Infantry, he was in the terrible Battle of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House, then the Assault on Petersburg. He was released with a Surgeon’s Certificate of Disability on March 30, 1865.

The first recorded occupation for teenage Aaron was in the 1870 census which shows he worked in a woolen mill while his father was a laborer in a dye house. It was three years later that Aaron had the greatest experience of his life, joining the 7th Cavalry of the U.S. Army.

 

From “Home” to “On the Range”

Gold had been discovered in the Black Hills of western South Dakota after the Civil War. That brought miners and settlers and railroads, displacing the Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne people, despite a treaty to protect the rights of the Sioux. They were not about to give up their nomadic way of life, so they moved west onto lands taken from other tribes like the Crow. The Great Sioux War of 1876 included the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25-26. The 7th Cavalry was called to what is now southern Montana about 40 miles north of the Wyoming border. 

Aaron was in Company B, one of 12 under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. He divided the regiment into three battalions to surround an encampment in the Little Bighorn river valley. The settlement was larger than it first appeared. Custer’s 700 men were no match for the combined Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho forces, estimated to be between 1100 and 2500 warriors.

Fortunately for Aaron, his company was bringing up the rear. They were in charge of the pack train, a line of mules carrying ammunition and supplies, but they couldn’t move as fast as the troops. Custer was supposed to wait until June 26 when additional regiments would arrive but he wrongly concluded he had been spotted, afraid that he lost the element of surprise. So he gave the order to attack at midday on the 25th.

Custer’s battalion began its attack from the east side heading north, while Major Marcus Reno led his battalion from the southwest. The third battalion was on scouting duty under Captain Frederick Benteen. Reno had to retreat under heavy fire to some steep bluffs overlooking the valley. Custer sent an urgent order to Benteen, “Come on, Big village, Be quick, Bring packs.“ But the packs weren’t there yet and Reno needed help to build a defensive position on the hilltop (which became known as Reno Hill).

When Private Woods and the mules arrived, Benteen attempted to send ammunition to Custer but was forced back to the hill. The two battalions exchanged fire from where they were pinned down until the next morning. Snipers continued to fire at them from the valley but, after receiving no response, the encampment moved away that afternoon in victory.

Of the 12 companies in the 7th Cavalry, the five under Custer’s command were wiped out. Among the 268 dead at what became known as Custer’s last stand were two of his brothers, a brother-in-law, and a nephew. Two other famous names were Sitting Bull, the spiritual leader of the Lakotas, (shown here) and Crazy Horse, who was actually in the assault. While the Lakota and Cheyenne won the battle, they would eventually lose the fight to retain their free-roaming culture as natives of the Northern Plains.

The significant result of this insignificant battle was how it stirred popular sentiment against native Americans and built the drama of the “Wild West.” It remains to this day a popular icon of American history, a chapter in student textbooks, and the subject of countless research projects, books, movies, and TV documentaries. 

The rest of the activities of the 7th Cavalry were anticlimactic. A year later a coalition of small tribes was formed, known as Nez Perce. They refused to be relocated to a reservation in Idaho and attempted to flee to Canada. A contingent of the 7th participated in the chase that forced them back.

A white woman named Martha Jane Canary joined the troops for a time in late 1877 as a nurse. Better known as “Calamity Jane,” she had some other less noble occupations and would later be buried beside “Wild Bill Hickock” in Deadwood, South Dakota. That place is also known as Mount Moriah Cemetery. It isn’t known what role Private Woods played in the Nez Perce War, or what else he did until he was discharged on September 2, 1878 at Standing Rock, South Dakota.

 

Home, Marriage, Children

Back in Philadelphia, his father had apparently died sometime earlier that year. Perhaps that’s why Aaron came home since he was the only adult male left in the family. His two sisters were now adults and engaged in sewing and dressmaking. He found work in a machine shop and remained a machinist for the rest of his life.

He also got married for the rest of his life on October 14, 1880. Elizabeth Moore joined hands and hearts with his at Union Presbyterian Church. All of their children were baptized there and three of the five had two middle names: Florence Ellen Woods (1881-1961), Harry Bruce Moore Woods (1883-1884), Lulu May Woods (1885-1887), Ethel Elizabeth Moore Woods (1888-1985), and Emily Jane Weir Woods (1896-1967). 

It was after he returned from the military that Aaron himself began using a middle name, Lee, because he wanted to honor a fellow soldier who was killed at Little Bighorn. The second middle name they gave to their last child, Emily, was in memory of the captain of Company D, Thomas Benton Weir. Aaron witnessed how he bravely attempted to take his men forward to meet Custer (defying Benteen’s orders) but was forced to retreat.

Ironically, when Emily was 18 she married a man named Benjamin Weir, the son of a man named Thomas J Weir, but he was not related to the heroic soldier.

Aaron publicly professed his faith in Jesus Christ and joined Tabor Presbyterian Church on January 28, 1900. His mother, who had been living in his home, died six months later. Aaron had a weakened heart that failed during a bout of bronchitis in 1902. His beloved Elizabeth lived another 42 years before she was laid to rest beside him and their two children who had died in infancy. Of the other three daughters, only Ethel and her husband share the family plot and the gravestone shown above.