Gilbert Motier Woodward

Gilbert Motier Woodward (December 25, 1835 – March 13, 1914) was an American lawyer, Civil War officer, and Democratic politician who served one term in the United States House of Representatives representing Wisconsin’s 7th congressional district. He was also the 16th mayor of La Crosse, Wisconsin, and the Democratic nominee for Governor of Wisconsin in 1886. Over the course of his public life he held a series of local, county, and federal offices and became a prominent figure in Wisconsin’s legal and political communities.

Woodward was born on December 25, 1835, in Washington, D.C., where he was educated in the common schools. As a young man he learned the printing trade, apprenticing in Baltimore and then working as a printer and proofreader in Baltimore, Upper Marlboro, and Washington. In Washington he spent most of his time employed by the historic National Intelligencer newspaper, then one of the capital’s leading publications. He remained in the printing and newspaper business until 1860, gaining experience that exposed him to national politics and public affairs in the antebellum period.

In February 1860 Woodward moved west to Wisconsin and settled in La Crosse, a growing Mississippi River city. There he turned to the study of law in the office of Isaac E. Messmore and was admitted to the bar in 1861. The outbreak of the American Civil War, however, led him to postpone the establishment of a legal practice. Instead, he enlisted for service in the Union Army, joining a company of La Crosse volunteers known as the “La Crosse Light Guards,” which became Company B of the 2nd Wisconsin Infantry Regiment, organized at Camp Randall in Madison.

The 2nd Wisconsin Infantry mustered into federal service in June 1861 and was ordered to Washington, D.C., for duty in the eastern theater. Woodward was promoted to first sergeant in September 1861, following the First Battle of Bull Run. That fall, the 2nd Wisconsin was brigaded with the 6th Wisconsin, 7th Wisconsin, and 19th Indiana infantry regiments, a formation that would soon gain renown as the Iron Brigade of the Army of the Potomac for its discipline and hard fighting, particularly at the Battle of Gainesville in August 1862. Just days before that engagement, Woodward was commissioned second lieutenant of his company. The next month, after the captain was killed at the Battle of South Mountain, he was promoted to first lieutenant. He fought with his regiment in many of the major battles of the Army of the Potomac, including Antietam in September 1862, Fredericksburg in December 1862, and Chancellorsville in the spring of 1863. Following Chancellorsville he was appointed adjutant of the regiment under Colonel Lucius Fairchild, and was soon detailed as adjutant to the brigade commander, Brigadier General Solomon Meredith. Serving on Meredith’s staff at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, Woodward was wounded by a gunshot to the forearm. After a brief period of recuperation he returned to duty and served as an aide to General Lysander Cutler during the Overland Campaign of 1864, remaining in the field until the expiration of his enlistment on July 2, 1864.

Returning to La Crosse after the war, Woodward resumed the legal career he had deferred in 1861 and quickly became active in public affairs. In 1865 he was elected district attorney of La Crosse County and was subsequently re-elected three times, serving in that office until January 1874. While serving as district attorney he entered into a law partnership in 1868 with Samuel S. Burton; the firm continued until 1876. Woodward also began to engage more directly in partisan politics. In 1872 he ran for the Wisconsin State Senate as a Liberal Republican on the Reform coalition ticket, but was defeated by Republican Gideon Hixon. Two years later, in the spring municipal election of 1874, he was narrowly elected mayor of La Crosse, defeating a Republican–Temperance fusion ticket headed by Sylvester Nevins. He later served as city attorney of La Crosse from 1876 through 1882, further consolidating his standing as one of the city’s leading lawyers and Democratic officeholders.

Woodward’s growing prominence led to his nomination and election to Congress. In 1882 he sought a seat in the United States House of Representatives from Wisconsin’s 7th congressional district and received the Democratic nomination on the first ballot at the party convention. The district had been a safe Republican seat throughout the 1870s, but redistricting in 1882 moved three-term Republican incumbent Herman L. Humphrey into another district, creating an opening. In the general election Woodward won an upset victory with 48 percent of the vote, aided in part by a Prohibition Party candidate who drew about 7 percent of the vote from the Republican base. As a Democratic Party representative from Wisconsin, he served in the Forty-eighth Congress from March 4, 1883, to March 3, 1885, participating in the legislative process during a period of significant economic and political adjustment in the post-Reconstruction era and representing the interests of his constituents in western Wisconsin. He was defeated for re-election in 1884 and returned to private life at the close of his term.

After leaving Congress, Woodward resumed his law practice in La Crosse but remained an influential figure in Democratic politics. At the 1886 Democratic State Convention he emerged as a compromise candidate for governor after former congressman and Union Army colonel Gabriel Bouck unexpectedly declined the nomination by letter at the outset of the gathering. Charles Jonas of Racine was initially considered a strong contender, but his prospects were weakened by an intense pressure campaign from Labor and Socialist activists based in Milwaukee. Woodward’s name was put forward by Representative Edward S. Bragg, a fellow veteran of the Iron Brigade and a powerful figure within the party. The convention received Woodward enthusiastically and nominated him for Governor of Wisconsin by acclamation. In the ensuing general election he was defeated by Republican incumbent Jeremiah McLain Rusk, who secured a third term. Woodward’s last major political role was as chairman of the Wisconsin delegation to the 1888 Democratic National Convention, underscoring his continued influence within the party even after his statewide defeat.

In his later years Woodward devoted himself primarily to his legal practice. In 1889 he formed a new partnership with J. W. Losey, establishing the firm of Losey & Woodward, under which name he practiced for the remainder of his professional life. He became known as a frequent and capable litigant before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, contributing to the development of state jurisprudence and maintaining a reputation as one of La Crosse’s most experienced attorneys. Despite declining health in his final years, he continued to work until about three months before his death.

Woodward married Ella R. Parker in 1864, during a furlough from military service, but she died in 1868 after only a few years of marriage. The couple had no children, and Woodward never remarried. He died on March 13, 1914, at the home of D. A. MacDonald in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in La Crosse, closing a life that spanned the antebellum capital, the battlefields of the Civil War, and nearly half a century of legal and political service in Wisconsin.