James Clinton Woodworth was born on 10 May 1839 in Worcester, Massachusetts, the son of the carpenter James S. Woodworth and his wife Amelia Stowall. Woodworth attended school in Worcester and Boston and was working as a clerk in Worcester when he enlisted in Co. H, 25th Massachusetts Infantry (13 September 1861). He served with the 25th Massachusetts for more than three years, ultimately being commissioned 2nd lieutenant (1 January 1863) and 1st lieutenant (10 May 1864). For much of the war the regiment served in the Department of North Carolina (later the Department of Virginia and North Carolina), going on frequent expeditions from its base around New Bern. Among Woodworth's most significant engagements in North Carolna were Roanoke Island (8 February 1862); New Bern (14 March 1862); Whitehall (16 December 1862); Goldsboro (17 December 1862); and Gum Swamp (22 May 1863). In April 1864 the regiment was attached to 18th Army Corps in Virginia, and suffered significant casualties at Arrowfield Church and Drewry's Bluff in the Bermuda Hundred campaign before being decimated in the general assault at Cold Harbor on 3 June. Here Woodworth was shot in the left wrist, effectively ending his active service. He was discharged from the army on 20 October 1864. In 1865 he moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, ultimately assuming a position as assistant cashier at the Old National Bank. He was very active in veterans affairs, serving as quartermaster of G.A.R. Post 271 in Fort Wayne. A passage in his obituary, in the Fort Wayne News for 18 January 1900, states: "Mr. Woodworth seems to have kept a record of nearly every man in the regiment, and during the following years, by this means, he was able to be of great service to his comrades who had no other available proof of matters they desired to establish." In 1866 Woodworth married Martha Morris, with whom he had two children.