Thomas Simpson Woodward

Thomas Simpson Woodward (February 22, 1797 – 1859) was a U.S. Army general who settled and named the area that developed into Tuskegee, Alabama. Late in life, he wrote letters about his experiences with and beliefs about American Indians.

Woodward was born in Elbert County, Georgia around 1794 and was orphaned at a young age. He was raised by his mother and her brother.[1]

He became a brigadier general in the Georgia militia and fought alongside Creek Indians.[1]

He migrated west and established a plantation in Camden, Arkansas, a town he named. He later moved to Wheeling in Winn Parish, Louisiana and established a 16,000-acre plantation, which he named Montgomery after the capital city of Alabama.[2] With James Dent he plotted land he owned and named it Tuskegee.[1]

A collection of his letters was published in 1859 as Woodward's Reminiscences of the Creek, or Muscogee Indians, Contained in Letters to Friends in Georgia and Alabama, in Montgomery, Alabama.[3] According to an introduction to his book he had a daughter with one of his slaves and moved to Louisiana.[4]

He had a son named Thomas Woodward who was a colonel in Louisiana.

A painted portrait of Woodward is preserved by the Alabama Department of Archives and History.[5]