Cadmus M. Wilcox
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Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox (May 20, 1824 – December 2, 1890) was a career U.S. Army officer who served in the Mexican-American War and was a Confederate general in the American Civil War.
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[edit] Early life and career
Wilcox was born in Wayne County, North Carolina. One of his brothers, John Allen Wilcox, would later serve in the First Confederate Congress as a representative from Texas. The family moved to Tipton County, Tennessee, when Cadmus was only two years old. He was raised and educated in Tennessee, studying at Cumberland College before being nominated to the United States Military Academy from the Memphis district. Wilcox was a member of the Class of 1846, as were George B. McClellan and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson.
Upon graduation, Wilcox was ordered to join the U.S. Army's campaign in Mexico, reporting to the 4th U.S. Infantry in Monterey as a brevet second lieutenant. He was appointed as an aide to Maj. Gen. John A. Quitman, acting as his adjutant at Vera Cruz and Cerro Gordo. For gallant conduct at Chapultepec, Garite de Belén and Mexico City, he was brevetted first lieutenant. He was formally promoted to the full rank in August 1851.
In the autumn of 1852, Wilcox was ordered back to West Point to serve as assistant instructor of military tactics, a position he held until the summer of 1857, when, on account of failing health, he was sent to Europe on a twelve-month furlough. On his return to West Point, he published a manual on rifles and rifle firing, which became the standard textbook on the subject. Wilcox also translated and published a work on infantry evolution as practiced in the Austrian army. He was ordered to New Mexico Territory in 1860, and, on December 20, was promoted to captain in the 4th Infantry.
[edit] Civil War
While serving on the frontier in New Mexico in June 1861, Wilcox learned of the secession of Tennessee. Sending in his resignation from the U.S. Army, he traveled to Richmond, where he was commissioned Colonel of the 9th Regiment Alabama Infantry on July 9, 1861. He joined General Joseph E. Johnston's army with his regiment on July 16 and marched to Manassas to reinforce General P. G. T. Beauregard.
On October 21, he was commissioned as a brigadier general and placed in command of a brigade comprised of the 3rd Alabama, 1st Mississippi, and 1st Virginia infantry regiments and an artillery battery. The brigade was assigned to James Longstreet's division of the First Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia. During the 1862 Peninsula Campaign, Wilcox played a prominent role at the Battle of Williamsburg. At Seven Pines, he commanded two brigades, and at Gaines' Mill three—his own, Featherston's and Pryor's. Wilcox miraculously escaped injury at Frayser's Farm where his uniform was pierced by six balls, and nearly every one of his regimental officers killed or wounded. During the Seven Days Battles, Wilcox lost more men than any other brigade within the division. In this fight, nearly every regimental officer in Wilcox's command was killed, and Wilcox himself had his clothing pierced by six bullets. The loss in Wilcox's brigade was heavier in the Seven Days' Battles than of any other brigade in Longstreet's division. Wilcox saw no significant action during the Northern Virginia and the Maryland Campaigns, nor at the Battle of Fredericksburg.
As a part of the division of Richard H. Anderson at the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863, Wilcox's brigade was instrumental in delaying the Union VI Corps in its drive west from Fredericksburg, slowing them at the Battle of Salem Church. Shortly after the battle, Wilcox and his brigade moved with Anderson's division to the newly created Third Corps, under General A. P. Hill.
General Wilcox participated in the Battle of Gettysburg; on the battle's second day, July 2, 1863, his charge against a weakened Union line was met (and held off) by a suicidally brave countercharge from the 1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. On the third day of the battle, during Pickett's Charge, his brigade served as support on the right flank of the division of his West Point classmate, George Pickett. Heavy artillery fire, particularly from those guns on Cemetery Ridge under the command of Freeman McGilvery, readily broke up Wilcox's assault.
With the death of Dorsey Pender at Gettysburg, Wilcox was promoted to major general on August 9, 1863, and assigned command of Pender's old division in Hill's Third Corps. Wilcox's new command consisted of Lane's North Carolina brigade, Thomas's Georgia brigade, McGowan's South Carolina brigade, and Scales' North Carolina brigade. For the rest of the war, Wilcox's Division saw heavy fighting, from the Overland Campaign through Appomattox Court House, where General Wilcox surrendered with his remaining men. During the final days of the Siege of Petersburg, Wilcox's last ditch stand at Fort Gregg helped delay the Union forces long enough for Longstreet to maneuver into position to cover the army's retreat.
[edit] Postbellum career
After the close of the war, Wilcox was offered a command as a brigadier general in the Egyptian army, but declined. In 1886 President Grover Cleveland appointed Wilcox as chief of the railroad division for the government at Washington, D.C. and served in that capacity until retirement. A life-long bachelor, Wilcox cared for his brother's widow and small children following John Wilcox's sudden death in February 1865.
Wilcox died at the age of sixty-six in Washington and was buried there in Oak Hill Cemetery. His pallbearers included four former Confederate generals and four former Union generals, a token of his esteem.
[edit] References
- Evans, Clement A., Confederate Military History, Vol. VIII, Atlanta: Confederate Publishing Company, 1899.
