Gen. Woodward tells of coming to Alabama Governor’s aid during a fistfight in this letter written Nov. 1858

Dear Donna,

So pleased to see so much reference to Gen’l Thomas Simpson Woodward in the excerpts from his “Woodward’s Reminiscences.” However, I note an error that has taken on a certain amount of persistence: TSW died on Dec. 24, 1859. His son, Thomas Andrew Woodward died in 1861. Too many seem to ignore the middle name difference and give too much weight to the first and last names. Perhaps because the son is not as well known — if at all. TSW’s death was recorded in 1860 as having occurred in February of that year, but I suspect that the Feb. date was in fact the date the information was recorded. He died of stomach cancer, according to the record. Many are aware, also, that there are many descendants of General TSW today. These are DNA proven descendants of a liaison the General had with one of his slave women. They had three children together — two sons, Lewis and Alfred, and a daughter named Sarah Ann after his wife Sarah Ann DuBose. Those descendants today have the surnames Woodard and Boullt. I am the granddaughter of TSW’s grandson (also named Thomas Woodward) who dropped the middle “w” from the name when his children began to arrive, but whose marriage license bears the name Woodward. An uncle and a cousin were the donors of the DNA material which placed us among the Mid-Atlantic Woodwards who arrived in Maryland in the early 1700s –the same time and location of the General’s forebears. We also have a reasonably reliable paper trail along with family oral history.