James Albert Woodruff (19 June 1877 – 20 August 1969) was a military engineer and United States Army major general.

As colonel of the 20th Engineers and Attached Service Troops, he had direct command of over 20,000 officers and men in fourteen battalions harvesting French timber and operating 282 sawmills.

[4][5] From March 1899 to September 1900, Woodruff was assigned to Rosebank, Staten Island in support of New York City harbor projects.

[6] In September 1917, he left American University and traveled with his regiment to France while Col. William A. Mitchell, the top graduate of West Point in 1902, was assigned to organize and train the 20th Engineers (Forestry).

Gen. Edgar Jadwin held overall command of the Division of Construction and Forestry in France, with Woodruff as his deputy director.

Woodruff's chief of forestry was Lt. Col. William B. Greeley, aided by Maj. Theodore S. Woolsey Jr.[9] The combined regiment built 81 new sawmills and cut over 272.5 million feet (83,06 million meters) of lumber, producing railroad ties, telephone poles, general construction material and firewood.

From January 1937 to March 1938, he served as commanding officer of the Hawaiian Separate Coast Artillery Brigade.

[12][13] Woodruff moved to Honolulu in 1941, but his retirement was cut short by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

He returned to active duty from December 1941 to August 1943 as president of the Military Commission under martial law in Hawaii.

His younger brother Charles Armijo Woodruff was a 1906 United States Naval Academy graduate who briefly served as governor of American Samoa.

One of his sisters, Genevieve, was married to General Malin Craig, the Chief of Staff of the United States Army from 1935 to 1939.

Their daughter Margarett Stafford Hubbell married Francis Joseph Johnson, a 1929 Naval Academy graduate who retired as a rear admiral.

Their son James Albert Woodruff Jr. (5 August 1908 – 21 January 1997) was a 1930 Naval Academy graduate who retired as a commander.