• Place of birth:
         Pulaski County, Kentucky
  • Place of burial:
         Mill Springs National Cemetery Nancy,           Kentucky
  • Allegiance:
         United States of America
  • Service/branch:
         United States Army
  • Rank:
         Sergeant
  • Unit:
         9th Cavalry Regiment
  • Battles/wars:
         Indian Wars
  • Awards :
         Medal of Honor
SGT BRENT WOODS
LEARN MORE ABOUT SGT. BRENT WOODS

A Day of Remembering

1855 – March 31, 1906
9th Cavalry Regiment
Indian Wars
Congressional Medal of Honor
Born in 1855, Woods was a slave for the first 10 years of his life, until the end of the Civil War and the Thirteenth Amendment removed the bondage of slavery. At the age of 18, with few other opportunities open to a former slave, Woods traveled to Louisville and enlisted in the United States Army. Assigned to the all-black Company B of the Ninth Cavalry, he became part of the famed "Buffalo Soldiers." For 13 dollars a month, Woods and other Buffalo Soldiers sweated, bled and died in the Western lands. They fought Indians, protected settlers, escorted stages and wagons, laid thousands of miles of telegraph lines, and kept the peace in the lawless frontier towns, among numerous other duties. And making this job even more difficult was the fact that the very people they were trying to protect often hated the blue-coated black soldiers. The long years of slavery still left many whites believing that blacks couldn't do a job as effectively as a white man.

  It didn't take long, however, for the black soldiers to prove themselves. Indeed, their adversaries, the Cheyenne, gave them the nickname "Buffalo Soldiers" in 1867 because their ferocity in battle reminded the Cheyenne of the fierce fighting ability of the buffalo. On August 19, 1881, Woods proved again that the comparison was fitting. While his patrol of 17 soldiers was leading a group of civilians out of dangerous territory, they were suddenly ambushed by Apaches in Gavilan Canyon, New Mexico. The troop's commander, Lt. G.W. Smith, and several others were killed instantly, and Woods himself was wounded in the arm. With their commander dead and the situation seemingly hopeless, many of the men began to panic. Knowing they would be picked off one by one if he didn't do something, Woods, despite his arm wound and facing superior numbers, fought his way to a high ridge where he conducted a one-man war until he forced the Indians to retreat. 

  Color barriers meant little on that day, and one white civilian saved by Woods' despite his arm wound and facing superior numbers, fought his way to a high ridge where he conducted a one-man war until he forced the Indians to retreat.unselfish action testified that, "If it had not been for him, none of us would have come out of that canyon." Other testimonies were not hard to find, and Woods was recommended for the Medal of Honor. Thirteen years later, on June 21, 1894, for "gallantry clearly beyond the call of duty," he was finally awarded the medal he'd so clearly won long before. In 1902, after 28 years and nine months of service, Woods finally retired from the Army.