John Marshall Wooley

John Marshall Wooley

Paul Stinson

Quick Facts

Place of Birth:

Barnwell, South Carolina

Date of Birth:

February 1, 1838

Place of Death:

Lott, Texas

Date of Death:

July 5, 1912

Place of Burial:

Lott, Texas

Cemetery Name:

Clover Hill Cemetery

Unit: Company H, 9^th Regiment, Louisiana Infantry          
Rank: In - Private Out - Private
Enlisted: March 12, 1862                                                 
Mustered Out: June 21, 1865, Point Lookout, Maryland
Photo Credit/Donated by: Paul Stinson
Sources: Military Muster Rolls; Jones, Terry, Lee’s Tigers, Baton Rouge, LA, (Louisiana State Univ. Press), 1987.; Family accounts; NPS Soldiers & Sailors           

John Marshall Wooley was born on February 1, 1838, in Barnwell, South Carolina, to Reason and Viney Wooley. Later moving west with his family, Wooley married Lavena Elizabeth Sawyer in Bienville, Louisiana, on April 25, 1858.           

On March 12, 1862, at the age of 24, Wooley enlisted as a private in the Confederate army with Company H, 9^th Louisiana Infantry Regiment. Shipped to Virginia in early 1862 with the rest of the Louisiana Brigade, Wooley fought in many of the major Civil War battles in the eastern theater. Apparently wounded and seriously sick several times, Wooley was a pneumonia patient in the Richmond Hospital from November to December 1862. Wounded while fighting with General Harry Hays’ Louisiana Tigers at the Second Battle of Winchester, Virginia, on June 13-14, 1863, Wooley might have received another wound fewer than three weeks later on the third day of battle at Gettysburg. Wooley was again listed as absent due to a wound from May until August 1864, the wound possibly suffered during the Wilderness campaign.       

Returning to the army, Wooley fought in the 1864 Shenandoah Valley campaign including the battles of Third Winchester, Fisher’s Hill, and Cedar Creek. At Cedar Creek on October 19, 1864, Wooley apparently suffered a head wound from a cannon shell fragment. Left for dead on the battlefield, Wooley was captured by Union soldiers, treated in a field hospital, and eventually sent to Point Lookout, Maryland, as a prisoner of war. During his recovery, a steel plate was inserted in Wooley’s head. He signed the Oath of Allegiance to the United States on June 21, 1865 and was transported back to Louisiana.           

Waiting at home for John was his wife and young son. Wooley and his family eventually moved to Texas where he worked as a farmer and raised seven children.           

Wooley died on July 5, 1912 at the age of 74 in Lott, Texas, and is buried in the Clover Hill Cemetery in Lott, Texas.             

Although it is unknown where Wooley was wounded and captured on the Cedar Creek battlefield, there are at least three strong possibilities. First was early in the morning on October 19, 1864, against Union 19^th Corps positions near the Valley Turnpike. Second was somewhat later during the morning attack against the Union 6^th Corps west of Belle Grove Plantation, and third was late in the afternoon during the Union counterattack that drove the Confederates from the field.