James Grant Wilson
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James Grant Wilson (April 28, 1832 – February 1, 1914) was an American soldier, editor, and author.
Wilson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He emigrated to New York City and then moved to Illinois.[1] He was educated chiefly by private tutors and through travel in Europe. In 1857 he founded the Chicago Record, a journal of art and literature, and entered the Union Army late in 1862 as a major of the 15th Illinois Cavalry, commanded the 4th U.S.C. Cavalry as colonel, and left the Army in 1865 as a brevet brigadier general.[1]
After the Civil War, he lived in New York where he became a well-known speaker, a frequent contributor to periodicals, president of the Society of American Authors, and, after 1885, of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. He edited Fitz-Greene Halleck's Poems (1868); A Memorial History of the City of New York (four volumes, 1892-93); Appleton's Cyclopœdia of American Biography (six volumes, 1887-89, with John Fiske; volume vii, 1900), an excellent book of reference; The Great Commanders Series (eighteen volumes, completed 1913); The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914 (four volumes, 1914), the work of many distinguished writers.
Wilson died in New York City and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, New York.[1]
[edit] Selected works
- Biographical Sketches of Illinois Officers (1862-63)
- Life of Fitz-Greene Halleck (1869)
- Sketches of Illustrious Soldiers (1874)
- Poets and Poetry of Scotland (1876)
- Centennial History of the Diocese of New York, 1775-1885 (1886)
- Bryant and his Friends (1886)
- Commodore Isaac Hull and the Frigate Constitutiuon (1889)
- Love in Letters (1896)
- Life of General Grant (1897)
- Thackeray in the United States (two volumes, 1904)
[edit] References
- Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
- This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.
[edit] Notes
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Categories: Union Army generals | People from New York City | People of Illinois in the American Civil War | American biographers | American historians | American novelists | American genealogists | American military writers | American non-fiction writers | 1832 births | 1914 deaths | American novelist stubs | United States non-fiction writer stubs
