Stewart L. Woodford

He studied at Yale University and Columbia College, now Columbia University. He graduated from Columbia in 1854, and was a member of St. Anthony Hall.^[1] He then studied law, awas admitted to the bar in 1857, and commenced practice in New York City.

In 1860, he was chosen as the messenger of the electoral college for New York state to convey to Washington, D.C. its vote in favor of the presidencyofAbraham Lincoln. In 1861, he was appointed U.S. assistant district attorney for the U.S. Southern District of New York. He held this office for approximately 18 months.

In 1862, during the American Civil War, he joined the Union Army as a volunteer, serving until 1865, during which time he became in succession chief of staff to Gen. Quincy A. Gillmore in the Department of the South, and military commandant of Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia. He became colonel of the 103rd Regiment of U.S. Colored Infantry. On January 13, 1866, U.S. President Andrew Johnson nominated Woodford for the award of the honorary grade of brevet brigadier general of volunteers, to rank from May 12, 1865, and the U. S. Senate confirmed the award on March 12, 1866.^[2]

He was the Lieutenant Governor of New York from 1867 to 1868, elected in 1866 on the Republican ticket with Governor Reuben E. Fenton. In 1870, Woodford was the Republican candidate for Governor but was defeated by the incumbent Democrat John T. Hoffman.

In 1872, he was elected as a Republican to the 43rd United States Congress and served from March 4, 1873, to July 1, 1874. Also in 1872 he was chosen to be a presidential elector.

He was U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1877 to 1883.

In June 1897, President William McKinley appointed Woodford to the post of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Spain. Spain severed diplomatic relations with the U.S. on April 21, 1898, and Woodford left his post the same day. The United States declared war on Spain as of that date by Act of Congress approved on April 25, 1898.

He died from heart disease at his home in New York City on February 14, 1913, and was interred in Woodland Cemetery in Stamford, Connecticut.^[3]

• Spanish–American War#Declaring war
• Teller Amendment

• United States Congress. "Stewart L. Woodford (id: W000713)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher. Civil War High Commands. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
• Samuel R. Harlow, H. H. Boone (1867). Life Sketches of the State Officers, Senators, and Members of the Assembly …. Weed, Parsons & co. Life Sketches of State Officers
• Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). "Woodford, Stewart Lyndon" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.