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(September 2, 1837–February 23, 1925)
Army General
Brilliant and capable, James Harrison Wilson rose from second lieutenant to major general in only four years. He staged the largest and most successful mounted raid of the Civil War and was the first Union general to defeat cavalry wizard Nathan Forrest. Wilson then rounded out his wartime career by capturing Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
Wilson was born in Shawneetown, Illinois, on September 2, 1837, and he briefly attended McKendree College before enrolling at the U.S. Military Academy in 1855. He graduated seventh in his class in 1860 and became a second lieutenant of topographical engineers. Wilson spent nearly a year at Fort Vancouver, Washington Territory, before the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861 necessitated his transfer back east. He fought at the capture of Port Royal, South Carolina, in November 1861 and also distinguished himself during the siege of Fort Pulaski, Georgia, the following April. Eager for advancement, Wilson next served as volunteer aide-de-camp to Gen. George B. McClellan, and accompanied him throughout the Peninsula and Antietam campaigns of 1862. For good conduct, he rose to lieutenant colonel of volunteers and joined Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s staff as his chief engineer in November 1862. Wilson later functioned as inspector general of the Army of the Tennessee and played a conspicuous role at the capture of Vicksburg in July 1863. He was promoted again to brigadier general of volunteers that October, and the following month Wilson distinguished himself in both the Chattanooga campaign and the relief expedition to Knoxville. Grant then recommended him for the post of chief of the Cavalry Bureau in the War Department, and he assumed that office by January 1864.
In this capacity, Wilson made indelible contributions to the war effort by overhauling and reequipping the army’s mounted arm. He believed that cavalry’s days as a shock weapon had passed and it was far more formidable in the role of mounted infantry. For this reason, he issued rapid-fire Spenser carbines to his troopers and drilled them in tactics emphasizing mobility and firepower. In April 1864, Grant summoned him back as commander of the Third Division in Gen. Philip H. Sheridan’s cavalry corps. Wilson fought well at the Battles of the Wilderness and Yellow Tavern that May, but he was still learning how to be a cavalry leader. In June 1864, Grant entrusted him to raid the outskirts of Petersburg, Virginia, which was then under siege and stoutly defended by Confederate forces. The Third Division spent several days tearing up railroads and burning supplies until it was attacked and defeated by Gen. Wade Hampton III at Ream’s Station. Wilson had to abandon his wounded, wagons, and artillery before making a hairbreadth escape back to Union lines. He subsequently fought under Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley and helped crushed the army of Gen. Jubal Early at Winchester in September 1864. Though his first independent foray came close to disaster, Wilson learned quickly from his mistakes and matured as a leader. Grant, a stern judge of generals, was impressed by the young soldier and transferred him to the army of Gen. William T. Sherman, stating, “I believe Wilson will add fifty per cent to the effectiveness of your cavalry.” He was also promoted to major general of volunteers.
Wilson accompanied Sherman throughout the Atlanta campaign until Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood abandoned the city and lunged for the Union supply lines in Tennessee. Assigning Judson Kilpatrick’s division for the march to the sea, Wilson then joined Gen. John M. Schofield at the defense of Franklin on November 29, 1864. Hood was badly repulsed, and both Union generals successfully fell back to join Gen. George H. Thomas at Nashville. On December 16, Hood’s army was smashed in battle and Wilson destroyed the remnants in a vigorous pursuit. Promoted to brevet brigadier general of regulars in March 1865, Wilson was next entrusted with a cavalry corps of three divisions (13,500 men) and ordered to raid the heart of the remaining Confederacy. This was the largest cavalry raid of the war and among the most successful. Wilson’s troopers tangled with renowned cavalry leader Forrest at Ebenezer Church on April 1, 1865, defeated him heavily, and the following day beat him again during the capture of Selma, Alabama. The state capital of Montgomery fell on April 12, as did Columbus, Georgia, on the 20th. Over 7,000 prisoners and 300 cannon were seized by Wilson’s marauding cavalry. On May 10, 1865, he gained a final measure of distinction when his men captured the fleeing Confederate leader Davis near Irwinville, Georgia. By June, Wilson received his final promotion to major general of volunteers; he was 27 years old at the time.
After the war, Wilson left the volunteer service to become lieutenant colonel of the 35th U.S. Infantry in July 1866. He performed engineering duty along the Mississippi River before resigning in December 1870 to pursue railroad construction. Wilson settled in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1883 as a civilian, but when the Spanish-American War commenced in 1898, he returned to the service as a major general of volunteers. That July, Wilson commanded a division in Gen. Nelson A. Miles’s Puerto Rico campaign, but saw no fighting and ended the war performing occupation duty in Cuba. In 1900, Wilson was reduced to the rank of brigadier general of volunteers and sent to China to help suppress the Boxer Rebellion. He became second-in-command of the Peking relief expedition under Gen. Adna R. Chaffee Sr., but he saw little fighting. Wilson then led a joint Anglo-American punitive expedition against Patachow, the famous city of eight temples, but refused to burn the Buddhist pagodas in retribution for Boxer attacks. Through a special act of Congress in February 1901, Wilson retired with the rank of brigadier general of regulars. He represented President Theodore Roosevelt at the coronation of King Edward VII in England in 1902 and by March 1915 had advanced to major general on the retirement list. Wilson died in Wilmington, Delaware, on February 23, 1925, one of the oldest surviving Civil War generals.
Bibliography
Broom, John T., “The Commander’s Vision in Blue and Gray: The Roles of Adna R. Chaffee, Sr., James H. Wilson, and the American Civil War in the Development of American Armor Doctrine,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, 1993; Evans, David, Sherman’s Horsemen: Union Cavalry Operations in the Atlanta Campaign, 1996; Jones, James P., Yankee Blitzkrieg: Wilson’s Raid through Alabama and Georgia, 1976; Keenan, Terry, Wilson’s Cavalry Corps: Union Campaigns in the Western Theater, October 1864 through Spring 1865, 1998; Longacre, Edward G., Grant’s Cavalryman: The Life and Wars of General James H. Wilson, 1996; Pehrson, Paul C., “James Harrison Wilson: The Post War Years, 1865–1925,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, 1993; Smith, Kristina F., “The End of the Cavalier: Nathan Bedford Forrest and James Harrison Wilson as Modern Cavalrymen,” unpublished master’s thesis, 1979; Wilson, James H., Under the Old Flag, 2 vols., 1912.
