Abraham Wood (1610–1682), sometimes referred to as "General" or "Colonel" Wood, was an English fur trader, militia officer, politician and explorer of 17th century colonial Virginia. Wood helped build and maintained Fort Henry at the falls of the Appomattox in present-day Petersburg. An expedition he commissioned reached the Eastern Continental divide at what is now the New River and that body of water was called Wood River for many years before it was subsequently labeled the "New." He also served in the Virginia House of Burgesses and as a member of the Virginia Governor's Council.

Abraham Wood emigrated from England as a 10-year-old boy in 1620. The English ship Margaret and John, on which he sailed as an indentured servant or cabin boy, was attacked by two Spanish vessels in the West Indies; Wood was one of the few survivors; the attack led the vessel to turn to the Virginia colonies. His location during the Indian Massacres of 1622 is unknown, but clearly he survived.

By 1625, Wood worked for Captain Samuel Mathews (as the youngest of his indentured servants) and lived at Jamestown. He was still in James City in 1632, but soon leased 100 acres along Kennecock Creek in one of the plantations upstream on the James River owned by descendants of Gov. Thomas Dale. By the end of the decade Wood filed several land claims for areas on the lower Appomattox River. In 1638 Wood received a land grant for 400 acres on the Appomattox River in Charles City County in what had been Flowerdew Hundred but had been renamed Peirsey's Hundred. In 1639 Wood patented another 200 acres based on paying the emigration of four named men from Britain.

By this time Wood had turned to exploring the colony's interior and traded for the beaver and deerskin with the indigenous peoples. Upon being expelled from their villages at Bermuda Hundred and Swift Creek, natives had established a village near the falls of the Appomattox River, which would much later would become part of Petersburg. After a dozen years of relative peace, natives revolted in 1644, in what is sometimes known as the third Anglo-Powhatan War. Governor William Berkeley the following summer led militia to the village of the aging Opechancanough (who had led the 1622 uprising), imprisoned him at Jamestown (where he died) and deported all males in that village older than 11 to Tangier Island.

Virginia colonists also responded to the unrest by building Fort Henry in 1646 at the falls of the Appomatox River. According to the treaty which ended that part of the conflict, it supposedly marked the legal frontier between white settlers and Native Americans, as well as defended the settlers on the south side of the James River (about 20 miles north of the Appomattox River). The fort also provided protection for the native Appomattoc tribe which had grain fields and fished in the Appomattox River near the falls, with whom Wood traded. From 1646 until around 1691, it became the only point in Virginia where Native Americans from south of the James River could legally cross eastward into white territory, or whites westward into Native American territory. Soon after its construction, Wood commanded a garrison of 30 from the surrounding counties. Colonists thought the tax burden too great, so the government allowed the fort and 600 acres of land to be sold to Wood, who agreed to keep 10 armed men at the fort for three years. Thus Wood, both commanded the fort and privately owned the adjoining land and trading post, a considerable advantage over his competitors in the "Indian trade".

Wood's increasing social standing was also shown by his election to the House of Burgesses in October 1644 by voters from Henrico County, and he won re-election three times (unlike any of his colleagues) as the number of burgesses representing that growing county varied greatly. However, Henrico's representation declined to just Thomas Harris in the 1647/8 session, and William Hatcher in the 1649 and 1652 sessions (and no-one in the 1651-1652 session), possibly because Wood was leading additional explorations of the upper reaches of the James River and down to the Roanoke River, as described below. Wood re-appeared as a burgess in the second session of 1652, now representing Charles City County, and he won-re-election for most of the sessions through 1656. Wood had become a justice of the peace for Charles City County in 1655 (the justices jointly administering the colony in that era). Also in 1655, he was appointed to a committee to review Virginia's laws. He was appointed to the Virginia Governor's Council in 1657 (the highest office to which a colonist could aspire in that era) and actively served until at least 1671. According to correspondence, he kept his seat through at least 1676, probably 1680.

Wood dispatched several exploration parties from Fort Henry during these years, including one that he personally led in 1650, which explored the upper reaches of the James River and the Roanoke River to the south. In August 1650, Wood and Edward Bland reached and traveled on the Great Indian Warpath, penetrating the Carolina region southwest of the Roanoke River and discovering westward flowing rivers. Daniel Coxe mentions that "Parts of this Country were discovered by the English long before the French had the least knowledge... Colonel Wood of Virginia... from the years 1654 to 1664 discovered at several times several branches of the great rivers Ohio and Mesechaceba (unknown current name)."

In 1671 Wood commissioned the first English expeditions to cross the Eastern Continental Divide. The members of that expedition included Thomas Wood (possibly a brother or son), Thomas Batts (Batte) and Robert Fallamto. The expedition is now known as the Batts and Fallam Expedition. The exploration party eventually reached what is now the New River Valley and the New River. Batts was a grandson of Robert Batts, vicar master of University College, Oxford, and possible relation to Nathaniel Batts, first permanent settler in North Carolina and Governor of Roanoke Island. Nathaniel by 1655 had a busy Indian trade from his home on Albemarle Sound. Robert Fallam kept a journal of their journey which shows him literate and educated. The New River was named Wood's River after Abraham Wood, although in time it became better known as the New River. Batts and Fallam are generally credited with being the first Europeans to enter within the present-day borders of West Virginia.