Brent Woods

Brent Woods, Buffalo Soldier and Medal of Honor Recipient

Public Domain

Quick Facts

Significance:

Buffalo Soldier and Medal of Honor Recipient

Place of Birth:

Pulaski County, Kentucky

Date of Birth:

1855

Place of Death:

Kentucky

Date of Death:

March 31, 1906

Place of Burial:

Nancy, Kentucky

Cemetery Name:

Mill Springs National Cemetery

Brent Woods was born enslaved in Pulaski County, Kentucky, in 1855. He was freed at the age of eight. Woods enlisted in the U.S. Army on October 10, 1873, in Louisville, Kentucky. Although Woods was 18 at enlistment, he lied about his age, saying that he was 23. He was assigned to B Troop, Ninth U.S. Cavalry.

By 1881, Woods and the other members of B Troop, Ninth Cavalry, were stationed at Fort Cummings, New Mexico. Fort Cummings, originally established in 1863, is located 20 miles northeast of modern-day Deming, New Mexico. The site was chosen because of the proximity to Cooke’s Spring, a large fresh water source for travelers heading west on the Butterfield-Overland Stage Route and the southern overland route to California.

On August 17, 1881, Lieutenant George W. Smith with a detachment of 17 troopers from B Troop including Woods left Fort Cummings in pursuit of Nana, a warrior and chief of the Chiricahua Apaches. B Troop was joined by a group of approximately 20 local cowboys led by rancher George Daly, who said that Nana and his fighters had attacked their ranch. The troopers and cowboys followed Nana’s trail toward Gavilan Canyon.

On August 19, 1881, as the troopers and cowboys approached the canyon, Lieutenant Smith halted the column, fearing an ambush. Daly and the cowboys ignored Smith’s advice and entered the canyon. Smith and the Buffalo Soldiers followed the cowboys into the canyon to protect them. Almost immediately, Apache warriors sprang from concealed positions, killing Lieutenant Smith and Daly. The cowboys fled the canyon, leaving the Buffalo Soldiers in the ambush. Buffalo Soldiers James Brown, Thomas Golding, and Monroe Overstreet were killed in action shortly after Lieutenant Smith. 
Sergeant Brent Woods, the highest-ranking Buffalo Soldier in Gavilan Canyon, took command. He ordered the troopers to charge up the canyon cliffs and attack the Apache positions. As the Buffalo Soldiers worked their way to higher positions, the Apaches gave ground and started retreating. However, it was not until another group of Buffalo Soldiers arrived that the battle tilted in their favor. Nana and his group retreated.

Private Henry Trout, a B Troop member, said that Woods “at once assumed command of the detachment and through his energy and skill defeated the Indians and saved the detachment from an entire massacre.” Woods was awarded the Medal of Honor 13 years later, on July 12, 1894. His citation stated, “Saved the lives of his comrades and citizens of the detachment.”

Woods retired from the Army in 1902 and returned to Kentucky. He died on March 31, 1906, and was buried in an unmarked grave at the First Baptist Church of Somerset. On June 20, 1984, the U.S. Army exhumed Woods’s remains and gave him a fully military funeral at Mill Springs National Cemetery in Nancy, Kentucky. He was reinterred in Section A, Grave Number 930.

Today, Woods is memorialized in bronze at the New Mexico Veterans’ Memorial in Albuquerque, New Mexico.