Nathan Wood was born on February 8, 1840, in Lebanon, Ohio, to William and Asenath Wood. His father was a grocery who owned $12,000 of real estate and $1,500 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Lebanon, and by 1860, he was working as a grocery keeper.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on June 19, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company F of the 12^th Ohio Infantry. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 8 ½ inches tall, with brown hair and blue eyes. He mustered out by the fall of 1862. He enlisted in the Regular Army on October 29, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in Company A of the 1^st United States Cavalry. Confederate forces captured him, and he received a parole in April 1863. He was discharged for disability on March 7, 1864.

 

He enlisted again on February 21, 1865, and he mustered in as a private in Company L of the 13^th Ohio Cavalry. He eventually earned a promotion to sergeant. He mustered out on July 4, 1865.

 

He returned to Lebanon after the war, and he married a woman named Mary. The couple had no children. He worked as a saloon keeper, and by 1870, he owned $200 of personal property. He applied for a federal pension in November 1870 and eventually received one. He got divorced in the 1870s, and he eventually married Joanna Cody. They had no children.

 

A local writer described him as “kind hearted and generous to a fault. No one can estimate the number of baskets of provisions he has sent poor families or the amount of money he has spent in assisting the needy.” He suffered from Bright’s disease, and he died from an overdose of morphine in Lebanon on January 5, 1895.

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