He was considered one of the country's leading legal historians on the life and legacy of former lawyer and United States President Abraham Lincoln, but is perhaps best known for his involvement as an Assistant Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice in two separate Native American armed protests: the first being the occupation at Alcatraz Island, in San Francisco Bay, from 1969 through the summer of 1971, and the second being the Wounded Knee incident in 1973 at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
He served in the United States Army during World War II, attaining the rank of Major, and was present at the signing of the surrender of Tomoyuki Yamashita and Vice Admiral Denhici Okochi, Commander of the Japanese Navy in the Philippines, where they gave up the entire Imperial Japanese Armed Forces to American authorities at the High Commissioner's Residence in Camp John Hay in Baguio, Philippines on September 3, 1945, marking the end of World War II.
During his time in the Department of Justice he was given many special assignments specifically dealing with issues of peacekeeping in locations around the United States: Wounded Knee; Culebra; Alcatraz; anti-war demonstrations in Washington, D.C.; and national political nominating conventions in Miami, Florida.
United States marshals and American troops subsequently surrounded the town, and for ten weeks the two sides traded intermittent gunfire, and two Sioux were killed.
On March 13, Wood — then assistant attorney general for the Civil Division of the US Justice Department — became the first government official who was allowed to enter Wounded Knee, under armed escort of residents of the reservation.
[2] Wood was nominated by President Gerald Ford on April 14, 1976, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit vacated by Judge John Paul Stevens.
[2] Wood served on United States Judicial Conference Committees dealing with Bankruptcy Legislation, Court Administration, Automation, and Long Range Planning for the Federal Judiciary.
The part of Lincoln is played modestly and honestly by Harlington Wood Jr., a tall, loose-jointed young lawyer in Springfield ... (who) seems to be using his voice unnaturally, striving after an effect that he does not entirely achieve.
But according to historians in the neighborhood, his manner, his height, his weight and his appearance are remarkably authentic for the part; and his performance solves happily the greatest problem in a Lincoln play.
Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) recalled: My first solo jury trial in the United States District Court in Springfield, Illinois was before Judge Harlington Wood Jr. No nervous young attorney could have drawn a better venue.
Harlington Wood's public life brought that great Lincoln tradition to his courtrooms and to all who were fortunate to share his journey.As well, Circuit Judge and legal author Richard A. Posner notes in the foreword for Wood's posthumously-published book, An Unmarked Trail: Harlington and I have been colleagues on the Seventh Circuit for many years, but until I read his fascinating memoir I had only a dim idea of his extraordinary life, including distinguished service in World War II and his decisive contribution on behalf of the Justice Department in resolving the Wounded Knee crisis in 1973.