James Wood (governor)

James Wood (1747 - 1813) was an officer of the U.S. Continental Army and Governor of Virginia.

Born in Winchester, Virginia, he was deputy surveyor of Frederick County, Virginia and represented the county in the House of Burgesses from 1766 to 1776. He was also commissioned by Lord Dunmore a Captain of Virginia troops in 1774 and negotiated the Treaty of Fort Pitt with the Shawnee Indians the following year. At the onset of the War for Independence, he was appointed Colonel of the 12th Virginia Regiment in 1776 and commanded that unit during the Philadelphia campaign and Monmouth campaigns of the next two years. The regiment was redesignated the 8th Virginia Regiment in September 1778 and was appointed Superintendent of the Convention Army when the prisoners were moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, that year. He continued in that capacity until it was dissolved in January 1783, when he was promoted a brigadier of state troops. He continued in state politics after the war and was elected as Virginia's fourth governor in 1796, serving until 1799. In addition to being an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati, he was also a leading member of an early abolition society in Virginia.

James Wood High School and James Wood Middle School in Frederick County, Virginia are named after the famous Revolutionary War Colonel, as is Wood County, West Virginia. [http://www.winchesterstar.com/TheWinchesterStar/Millennium%20Edition/Millennium%20Legacy/shapedus_jameswood.asp]