Charles Erskine Scott Wood

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Charles ES Wood, 1910

Charles Erskine Scott Wood (born February 20, 1852 in Erie , Pennsylvania , † January 22, 1944 in Los Gatos , California ) was an American officer, lawyer and writer.

Life

Born the son of Rosemary Carson and William Maxwell Wood, the Surgeon General of the US Navy , Wood graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point in 1874 and began active service in the armed forces as a lieutenant in the 21st Infantry Regiment. In the winter of 1876/77 he was appointed to the staff of Brigadier General Oliver Otis Howard . Wood, who until then had been rather frustrated with army life and had also complained of numerous personal problems in the previous years, found himself welcomed by Howard and his wife and children like a family. Howard subsequently also supported Wood's attempts to write with feedback and comments. After the outbreak of the Nez Percé War , Wood became Howard's adjutant on July 22, 1877 and accompanied the general in this capacity during the following campaign. He was present at the surrender of Chief Joseph , the chief of the Nez Perce, and handed down and translated his famous surrender words: “I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever. " (Translation: " I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From the current position of the sun on, I will never fight again - forever. " ). The following year Wood took part in the Bannock - Paiute campaign. During the Nez Percé War, Wood had also played a role as a kind of "press officer" due to his literary skills and wrote reports for newspapers in which he defended Howard and his troops, who were criticized for the course of the war. At the same time he had also started to defend the Indians and had become friends with Joseph after the end of the war. In 1884 he wrote in Century Magazine : "Joseph [...] fought for what the white man, if successful, calls" patriotism. "

Wood graduated from Columbia University with a law degree in 1883 and left the Army with the rank of major the following year . In 1884 he opened a law firm in Portland . At the same time he began to write prose and poetry. As a lawyer he represented u. a. as a radical trade unionist and civil rights activist, campaigned for Indians and opponents of the war and became a member of the "American Anti-Imperialist League", which was founded in response to the annexation of Puerto Rico , the Mariana Islands and the Philippines after the Spanish-American War . In 1892, Wood co-founded the Portland Art Museum. In 1918, estranged from his wife, Wood left Portland and moved to California, first to San Francisco , then to Los Gatos, where he had a small villa "The Cats" built and lived with Sara Bard Field, a suffragette and poet.

His best-known work is the "Heavenly Discourse", published in 1927, a collection of satirical essays in which various characters such as God , Jesus , Mark Twain (with whom Wood was friends) and Theodore Roosevelt discuss each other in dialogues . Politically radical, Wood makes fun of militarism, prudery and religious intolerance in this work.

Wood was married twice. From his first marriage to Nanny Moale Wood geb. Smith had five children, including Nan Wood Honeyman, who was the first woman to be elected to represent the state of Oregon in Congress . From 1925 until his death, Wood was married to Sara Bard Field for the second time.

Wood died at the age of 91 in Los Gatos, California.

Fonts

Books

  • A Book of Indian Tales , 1901
  • A Masque of Love , 1904
  • The Poet in the Desert , 1915
  • Heavenly Discourse , 1927
  • Too Much Government , 1931
  • Earthly Discourse , 1937

Articles and essays (selection)

  • Among the Thinkits in Alaska, published in Century Magazine , July 1882, available online at cornell.edu
  • Chief Joseph, the Nez Perce , published in Century Magazine , May 1884, available online at cornell.edu
  • Famous Indians , published in Century Magazine July 1893, available online at cornell.edu
  • The Pursuit and Capture of Joseph; published in Chester Anders Lee, Chief Joseph: The Biography of a Great Indian , Wilson-Erickson, 1936, available online at pbs.org

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Venn, Soldier to Advocate , pp. 38f.
  2. ^ Venn, Soldier to Advocate , p. 43
  3. ^ Venn, Soldier to Advocate , pp. 62ff.
  4. ↑ Wood: Chief Joseph, the Nez Perce , Century Magazine, Vol. 28 (May-October 1864), p. 135. Available online at cornell.edu
personal data
SURNAME Wood, Charles Erskine Scott
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wood, CES
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American officer in the Indian Wars, writer and lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH February 20, 1852
PLACE OF BIRTH Erie , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH January 22, 1944
Place of death Los Gatos , California