October 22d, 1861, Capt. Moses Gaskell [sic, i.e. Gatchell] having been killed in the battle of Ball's Bluff, Lieut. Wood was promoted to take his place. At this battle he had displayed great courage, rising from a sick bed that he might take part in the engagement. After serving through the Peninsular, Antietam and Fredericksburg campaigns, as one of the bravest officers in a regiment which saw perhaps as much and as hard service as any in the army, he resigned his commission and was discharged January 16, 1863.

After his return from the army Capt. Wood resumed his business in North Leominster, and under the ministry of the Rev. Wm. J. Batt, of the Orthodox Congregational Society, united with that church becoming at once a prominent and useful member. He served the church as deacon, the Sunday-school as teacher and superintendent, and the Society as parish committee. He gave liberally and to the full measure of his means, and was active in securing funds from others for the building of the present church edifice.

Later on he was the soul of the movement which resulted in the formation of the church in North Leominster, and also gave liberally of his means and energies towards their present house of worship. Besides his church work he was also an active worker in the temperance cause.

In addition to his North Leominster business, Capt. Wood was for some time a member of the firm of Hallett & Wood, provision dealers, at the market now owned by Conant & Morse. In 1879, desiring to carry on a more extensive business, he moved to Bridgeport, Conn., and with Mr. Hallett began the wholesale meat business which he followed up to the time of his death, Feb. 6, 1886.

The funeral services were held in North Leominster church, Rev. Wm. J. Batt having charge of the services, assisted by Rev. Robert G. S. McNeille, pastor of the church at Bridgeport, of which Capt. Wood was a deacon, Rev. Mr. Jones of the North Leominster church, and Rev. Richard Meredith of the Orthodox church. In his remarks Mr. Batt described the life, character, work ... of Deacon Wood, showing that through all these years, in Bridgeport as well as Leominster, he was the same earnest, enthusiastic, whole-souled, uncompromising friend of temperance, morality and religion, and had the same interest in the well being of his fellow men that characterized his new life in this town.

A short time before his death, at a reunion of the Old 15th Regiment, Capt. Wood, in responding to "Antietam", closed his remarks by throwing back his coat and showing a fragment of the standard of his regiment containing two stars shot from it at the battle of Antietam and which he had preserved through all these years, said: "Boys : when I am laid to rest I hope to have these go with me." This wish was regarded and those honored emblems were pinned on his breast over his heart; a last and most fitting tribute to a brave officer and a true man.