Peter Cavanaugh Woods

(December 30, 1819 - January 27, 1898) Born in Tennessee, Peter C. Woods was reared by his maternal grandparents. He graduated from the Louisville, Kentucky, Medical Institute in 1842. Woods married Georgia V. Lawshe in 1846. They moved with their children, Pinckney and Sarah Cherokee, and slaves to Bastrop, Texas, in 1852, and settled in Hays County in 1854. Dr. Woods began a medical practice in the San Marcos Area. Using a little-known aseptic technique learned in New York, he effected an excellent survival and recovery rate among his surgical patients. Dr. Woods was elected commanding officer of the 32nd Texas Cavalry Regiment in March 1862 at Camp Wood south of San Antonio. The 32nd Cavalry Regiment and other Texas Regiments kept the Union Army from invading Texas by patrolling the Rio Grande and Gulf Coast borders to protect the cotton trade with Mexico. They picked up Confederate deserters and conscription evaders. Dr. Woods became a colonel known for his loyalty to his men, once refusing an order to force the men to give up their own horses to the Confederacy. The regiment fought in Louisiana at the Battles of Blair's Landing, Grand Ecore, Mansfield, Monett's Ferry, Pleasant Hill and Yellow Bayou, where Woods himself received an arm injury which impaired him for the rest of his life. His aseptic methods saved the limbs of the wounded soldiers in his regiment. After the war, Colonel Woods returned to San Marcos. He freed his slaves, giving them tracts of land, and resumed farming and the practice of medicine. He was elected to the Constitutional Convention of 1866. After Georgia L. Woods died in 1872, he married Ella R. Ogletree in 1874. (2000)

Peter Cavanaugh Woods is a historical marker in San Marcos, Hays County, dedicated in 1999. It is one of 124 historical markers documented in Hays County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 184 historic sites cataloged across the county.

The site sits at 29.8871, -97.9575 near San Marcos. The nearest cataloged historic site is Cemetery Chapel, San Marcos Cemetery (historic place), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include San Marcos Cemetery, San Marcos Cemetry Chapel, and Caldwell House.

This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #5209012007. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.