In 1895, he was the White House Physician to President Grover Cleveland. He began his long friendship with Theodore Roosevelt during his years in Washington. During the Spanish-American War he was the commander of the First Volunteer Cavalry (The Rough Riders) - Roosevelt was his second-in-command.

Following the war, he served as Military Governor of Cuba until 1902. As a Brigadier General he fought the Moros during the Philippine Insurrection in 1904 and less than a year later he was named Army Chief of Staff by President William Howard Taft (who he knew in the Philippines where Taft served as Civilian Governor). In less than a decade, he had jumped from a Captain in the Medical Corps to the highest post in the Army.

He resigned that position in 1914. When World War I broke out, he became a vocal advocate for preparedness. He hoped to be Secretary of War, but was not appointed. In 1927 he returned home from Manila to seek medical attention of a tumor resulting from an earlier head injury. He died on the operating table of a Boston hospital on August 7, 1927. He is buried in Section 21 of Arlington National Cemetery.

His wife, Louise Adriana Wood (1869-1943), his son, Leonard Wood, Jr. Captain, Infantry, United States Army, 1892-1931, his daughter, Louise Barbara Wood (born at Havana, Cuba - 1900-1960), and his son, Osborn Cutler Wood, Colonel, United States Army (20 January 1897-8 February 1950), are buried with him.

Miss Wood's father was Colonel of  the First United States Volunteer Cavalry, the Rough Riders of  the Spanish-American War. She was born in Cuba, when her father was military governor of  the island. In World War I she did relief  work in France.

After her father was an unsuccessful candidate for the 1920 Republican  Presidential nomination, Miss Wood went with him the next year to the Philippines, where he was governor-general until his death in 1927.

WOOD, LEONARD JR
CAP CAV
VETERAN SERVICE DATES: Unknown
DATE OF DEATH: 08/27/1931
DATE OF INTERMENT: 08/31/1931
BURIED AT: SECTION SPEC  SITE 10
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

WOOD, LOUISE B D/O LEONARD SR
DATE OF BIRTH: 03/29/1900
DATE OF DEATH: 11/26/1960
DATE OF INTERMENT: 01/21/1960
BURIED AT: SECTION 21  SITE S-10
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
 DAUGHTER OF LEONARD WOOD SR - MAJ GEN

 WOOD, LOUISE W/O LEONARD
DATE OF DEATH: 01/28/1943
DATE OF INTERMENT: 02/01/1943
BURIED AT:   SITE 810
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
WIFE OF LEONARD WOOD - MAJOR GEN USARMY RET

WOOD, OSBORN CUTLER
COL, USA
VETERAN SERVICE DATES: Unknown
DATE OF BIRTH: 01/20/1897
DATE OF DEATH: 01/30/1950
DATE OF INTERMENT: 02/08/1950
BURIED AT: SECTION 22  SITE S-10
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
 

Rank and organization: Assistant Surgeon, U.S. Army. Place and date: In Apache campaign, summer of 1886. Entered service at: Massachusetts. Birth: Winchester, New Hampshire. Date of issue: 8 April 1898. 

Citation:

Voluntarily carried dispatches through a region infested with hostile Indians, making a journey of 70 miles in one night and walking 30 miles the next day. Also for several weeks, while in close pursuit of Geronimo's band and constantly expecting an encounter, commanded a detachment of Infantry, which was then without an officer, and to the command of which he was assigned upon his own request.

Portrait Courtesy of the U.S. Army
Center For Military History

7 August 1929:
Those assembled at the tomb of Leonard Wood, in Arlington National Cemetery, include Raphael Alunan (to the left of the wreath),
Hiram Bingham (behind and to the right of the wreath), Manuel Roxas (to the right of the wreath), 
and Camelo Osias (to the right of the tomb).
Photo Courtesy of Yale University

Gravesite photos courtesy of Ron Williams

Osborne C. Wood, Lieutenant Colonel, United States Army
Photos (c) Michael Robert Patterson, September 1999

Spanish-American War Records
Courtesy of the National Archives