Memoir 2, Page 33, 'Support, Protect, and Defend'

"We owe allegiance to the Union and 'will support, protect and defend' her in every possible and practicable manner"

It is not clear what Woods is quoting here, though his language is very similar to that used throughout American oaths of office since the Revolution. At the time of Woods’ drafting into the Confederate army, the United States’ standard oath for enlisted men used the words “support and defend”; however, these words may have varied by state or altered in Confederate versions of the oath. The word “protect” may also have been added by Woods himself.