John T. Wilder

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John Thomas Wilder
John Thomas Wilder

John Thomas Wilder (January 31, 1830 – October 20, 1917) was an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. As an industrialist, he was instrumental in developing the natural resources of the State of Tennessee.

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[edit] Early life and career

John T. Wilder was born in the Catskill Mountains in Hunter, Greene County, New York, a descendant of a long line of soldiers. His grandfather and great-grandfather both fought in the Revolutionary War, his great-grandfather losing a leg in the Battle of Bunker Hill. His father fought in the War of 1812.

Wilder spent his younger years in Hunter, where he attended school. When he turned nineteen, his school days over, he decided to head west to make it on his own. Wilder soon arrived in Columbus, Ohio, nearly penniless, and found employment as draftsman and then an apprentice millwright at a local foundry.This training would lay the groundwork for his career. In 1857, eight years after he arrived in Columbus, he relocated to Indiana, first to Lawrenceburg and then to Greensburg, where he established a small foundry of his own. It rapidly became a success. Wilder invented many hydraulic machines that he patented, and he sold equipment, building mills and hydraulic works in many of the surrounding states. He also became nationally renowned as an expert in the field of hydraulics, patenting a unique water wheel in 1859.

[edit] Civil War

With the outbreak of the Civil War, Wilder enrolled in the 1st Indiana Battery in April 1861, and was elected a captain. Governor Oliver P. Morton appointed him as the lieutenant colonel of the 17th Indiana Infantry Regiment three months later. On March 2, 1862, Wilder became the regiment's colonel. Serving in Don Carlos Buell's army, he saw his first combat at the Battle of Shiloh. In recognition for his performance and potential, he was assigned command of a brigade of infantry and fought in Kentucky against Braxton Bragg's army. He issued Spencer repeating rifles to his men, which were capable of a rate of firepower far greater than his Confederate adversaries.

Wilder received wide attention for his performance in the Tullahoma Campaign. He had mounted his brigade on horses and moved into the battle with such rapidity that his men soon became known as the "Lightning Brigade." The Lightning Brigade seized and held Hoover’s Gap, defeating repeated attempts to dislodge his force. Wilder’s brigade was the first to enter Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Major General George H. Thomas formally commended Colonel Wilder for his performance at the Battle of Chickamauga. He led the brigade during much of the Atlanta Campaign. He was promoted to brevet brigadier general of volunteers on August 7, 1864. Due to illness, Wilder resigned from the army in October 1864 and returned home.

[edit] Postbellum career

After the war, Wilder settled in Chattanooga. In 1867, he founded an ironworks in the Chattanooga region, then built and operated the first two blast furnaces in the South at Rockwood, Tennessee. In 1870, he established a company in Chattanooga to manufacture rails for the railroads. From 1884 to 1892, he helped promote and construct the Charleston, Cincinnati & Chicago Railroad while living in Johnson City, Tennessee. While in Johnson City, he developed the booming industrial suburb of Carnegie, named in honor of fellow industrialist, Andrew Carnegie, and a host of iron making and railroad-related manufacturing facilities. Iron ore was brought to Johnson City via the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad, and Wilder constructed a popular 166-room hotel near Johnson City named the Cloudland Hotel near the summit of Roan Mountain to serve tourists via this scenic narrow gauge railway line.

Wilder entered politics and was elected mayor of Chattanooga in 1871. He resigned a year later to pursue his business interests. He unsuccessfully ran for the United States Congress in 1876. In 1877, he accepted the position of city postmaster, serving until 1882.

He moved to Knoxville, Tennessee in 1897 after receiving an appointment from President William McKinley as a Federal pension agent, then was commissioner of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.

He died in Jacksonville, Florida, aged 87, while on vacation and was buried in Forest Hills Cemetery in Chattanooga.

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