Unless you have been assigned to the post or the hospital, you have probably never heard of Leonard Wood. Leonard Wood arguably had the most distinguished military-government career of someone who did not become president. Wood was a Harvard-educated physician, pursued the Apache Chief Geronimo, received the Medal of Honor, was physician to 2 U.S. presidents, served as U.S. army chief of staff, was a successful military governor, ran for president, was a colleague of Walter Reed, and was commander-inarms for President Theodore Roosevelt.
Wood was born in 1860 to an established New England family; his father was a Union Army physician during the Civil War and was practicing on Cape Cod when he died unexpectedly in 1880. The family was left destitute, but Wood was able to continue his education when a wealthy family friend agreed to pay for him to attend Harvard Medical School, which at the time did not require any prior college. He graduated in 1883 and was selected for a prized internship at Boston City Hospital; however, he was dismissed for a rule violation that the program director later admitted was a mistake.
Unable to support himself in practice in Boston, Wood turned to the U.S. Army, a decision that would change his life. Assigned to Fort Huachuca in Arizona, Wood participated in the yearlong pursuit and final surrender of Geronimo; for his role he was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1898. His experiences in the wild and rugged terrain of the west triggered a legendary and lifelong pursuit of hard and stressful physical activity. Transferred to California, Wood met Louise Condit-Smith, ward of an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. When they married in November 1890 in Washington, DC, the ceremony was attended by all of the Supreme Court justices.
In 1893 while assigned to Fort McPherson outside Atlanta, Wood, whose duties were not demanding, needed a physical outlet for his unbounded energies. He enrolled at Georgia Tech at age 33 to play football. He was eligible to play because he had not previously attended college. He scored 5 touchdowns, winning the game against rival University of Georgia.
Later, Wood was assigned to Washington, where he quickly became known and sought after as a physician. He served many of the political and military elite, including presidents Grover Cleveland and William McKinley. In 1897, he met Theodore Roosevelt, the 38-year-old assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy who shared his love of outdoor adventure and the military. They became fast friends/companions/competitors; Roosevelt wrote to a friend that he had found a “playmate.”
When the U.S.S. Maine was sunk in Havana Harbor in 1898 and war was declared on Spain, Wood and Roosevelt schemed on how to go to war together. Wood the career soldier and Roosevelt the career politician had excellent connections and became commander and deputy commander of the First Volunteer Calvary, later famously known as the Rough Riders. When a more senior general became ill, Wood was promoted to brigadier general, and Roosevelt became the regiment colonel.
