Jr. Bradford Ripley Wood

Born in Westport, Connecticut, in 1800, he studied at Union College and later at the Litchfield Law School before building a legal career in Albany, New York. Early in his career he also taught and gave lectures, showing a public-minded style that stayed with him throughout his life.

He served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives for New York from 1845 to 1847. Later, during the Civil War era, he was appointed United States minister to Denmark, serving from 1861 to 1865.

As an author, he is best remembered for Chattanooga; or, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge from Moccasin Point, a work preserved by Project Gutenberg. He died in Albany in 1889, leaving behind the record of a life that connected law, politics, diplomacy, and historical writing.