William Burnham Woods (August 3, 1824 – May 14, 1887) was an American attorney and jurist who served as a United States circuit judge and an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court as well as an Ohio politician and soldier in the Civil War. Early life and education Woods was born on August 3, 1824, in Newark, Ohio. He was the older brother of Charles R. Woods, who also became a general in the Civil War. He attended college at Western Reserve University (now Case Western Reserve University) in Hudson, Ohio, before transferring to Yale University, from which he received an Artium Baccalaureus in 1845 with honors. Career After graduating he returned to Newark and read law by clerking for S. D. King, a prominent local lawyer. Woods was admitted to the bar in 1847. He entered the firm of his mentor, King, and became his partner. He practiced law with King in Newark, from 1847 to 1862. Woods, a loyal Democrat, was elected Mayor of Newark in 1856. He was next elected to the Ohio General Assembly in 1858, and was selected soon after as Speaker of the House. He also served as Minority Leader. Military service Although Woods opposed the Civil War, because he opposed slavery, he came to accept a Union victory as a necessity. In 1862 he left the Ohio state house to join the Union Army. He was commissioned as lieutenant colonel of the 76th Ohio Infantry, which served in the Western Theater. He fought at the battles of Shiloh and Vicksburg, and was breveted brigadier general. Woods commanded his regiment under William T. Sherman during the Atlanta Campaign and Sherman's March to the Sea. During the Carolinas Campaign, he fought with distinction at the Battle of Bentonville, where he commanded a brigade. He was appointed a brevet major general and was promoted to full Brigadier General in early 1865. He left the Army in February 1866. Settlement in the South He decided to settle in the South, living for a year in Mobile, Alabama, where he reopened a law practice, before moving his practice to Montgomery. There he bought property and cultivated cotton, hiring free African-American workers, likely as sharecroppers. He served as a Chancellor for the Middle Chancery Division of Alabama in Montgomery from 1868 to 1869. Federal judicial service Circuit Court service Woods was appointed as a United States Circuit