Col. Jas. Wilson Biography Transcribed by Richard F. Lesses from the Iowa Historical Record in 1887. Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives Project on October 25, 1998. Copyright 1998 by Richard F. Lesses. ************************************************************************ USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ************************************************************************ Iowa Historical Record Vol. III. JULY, 1887. No. 3. GEN. JAMES WILSON. Late Provost Marshal, Army of the Tennessee. NEARLY midway between the coasts of Europe and America, on the direct track of inter-continental navigation, lies one of the colonial possessions of Portugal, the beautiful series of nine islands called the Azores. Discovered in 1432, as the first fruits of the awakened spirit of exploration which distinguished the fifteenth century, their espial stimulated still further that ambition for discovery which finally led to the knowledge of America. There is said to be on the westerly coast of the island of Corvo, one of this group, in a wave-beaten rock, the rude figure of a gigantic man, with outstretched arm pointing: to the west, which is credited in the traditions of the sailors with the suggestion which inspired Columbus to push his way across the Atlantic. On one of these islands, the Island of St. Michael, James Wilson, the subject of this sketch, was born in 1820. On his father's side he is of Scotch and English descent; on the part of his mother, of Portuguese origin. His father, James Wilson, while quite a young man, left England and established himself in business in St. Michael. Soon after taking up his residence at St. Michael, while at divine service one day, he caught a glimpse, through the grating which separated the 482 IOWA HISTORICAL RECORD. church from a convent, of a young nun who was singing in the mass, and was so charmed by the beauty of her face and the sweetness of her voice that he fell violently in love with her at first sight. She proved on inquiry to be a native of the island, of honorable Portuguese parentage, still a novice of her order, having taken only the white veil, After many difficulties he finally succeeded, by the aid of her brother, in effecting her release from the convent, and in a short time afterwards they were happily married. These were the parents of lames Wilson, our hero, for he proved himself in after life, in deed and in fact, a true hero-in march, in siege, in battle, with dashing sword, a knightly figure at the front, when those behind found no dishonor even at the rear. Inheriting from his paternal parent those sturdy physical qualities which characterize the races from which his father sprung, and from his mother the sprightly and polite manners of her country, he proved well fitted to endure the hardships of war and brighten the camp. His father, having close business relations with a firm of ship owners in Bath, Maine, who carried on a brisk trade with the island, when the son was nearly twelve years old, realizing the utter absence of all educational facilities in St. Michael, decided to send him to the United States to be educated. He sailed under the care of the captain of the brig James Wilson (named after his father), arriving, after a passage of forty days, at his destination in Bath. He there went to the academy for a year or two, the Rev. Dr. Magoun, late president of Iowa College, being at the time also a pupil. The friends in whose care he had been placed, having decided to leave Bath and commence a business in the city of New York, he gave up his original intention of preparing himself for a profession, and removed with them, arriving in New York in the spring of 1836. After acting as a clerk for several years in a large importing and shipping house in New York and acquiring a thorough knowledge of business usages, he entered into business for himself. GEN. JAMES WILSON. 483 In 1843 he married Miss Catherine C. Church, daughter of the Hon. Rodney C. Church, of Brooklyn, N. Y. Judge Church was an ardent democrat and one of the members of Tammany Hall, at the time when the party in New York acquired the name of the Locofoco party. A number of the members, learning of a conspiracy to break up a meeting by extinguishing the gas, had armed themselves with candles and locofoco matches, and when darkness fell upon the meeting, promptly struck their matches, and lighting their candles, discomfited their opponents. Judge Church's only living son is now governor of Dakota. After some years of business life in New York, the desire to reach out to the west became so strong that in the spring of 1855 Gen. Wilson gave way to it, and gathering his little family together they traveled by rail to Rock Island, then the terminus of western railroad travel. By a strange coincidence, having crossed the Atlantic as a boy in 1832 in a vessel of his own name, he found himself on the banks of the Mississippi a man stepping on board a steamboat of the same name to cross the Father of Waters, the boat having been named probably after the Hon. James Wilson, of Fairfield, even at that early day a prominent man in Iowa. Gen. Wilson's first experience of western life began at Davenport. Securing a covered wagon, the "prairie schooner" of the day, he packed his family and scanty household effects on board, and commenced the life of a pioneer, with all its ups and downs, its joys and sorrows. Traveling a hundred and fifty miles into the interior, he secured a piece of land near the center of the state, about five miles from Newton, then a small hamlet. having built a log cabin, he and his family, all fresh from the city, commenced the battle of life. Utterly without experience in farming, and unused to manual labor, their experiences were sometimes very ludicrous and sometimes sad, but through and above all was the pervading and sustaining feeling of absolute freedom and independence, of ownership, of lordship of the soil on which they trod, a feeling which comes rarely to the denizens of eastern 484 IOWA HISTORICAL RECORD. cities, who are renters as a rule rather than owners of the property they occupy. After a few years, success crowned the efforts of the pioneers; the wild prairies began to blossom, crops and cattle increased. So that, when the country was startled in 1861 by the muttered threats of war, which soon broke with all its horrors upon the country, it was at great personal sacrifice that Gen. Wilson left his home and surroundings and joined Thos. M. Miller in raising a company of men in Jasper county. Men were eager to serve their country in those days, and in less than a week a full company was organized, of which Gen. Wilson was elected first lieutenant, Miller being captain. The company was tendered to Gov. Kirkwood, who ordered it to rendezvous at Davenport, where it was mustered into the service of the United States in October, 1861, by Capt. Alexander Chambers, of the Fifth U. S. Infantry, afterwards Colonel of the Sixteenth Iowa Volunteers and Brigadier General, who, after serving throughout the war and performing many gallant feats of arms, which reflected honor upon Iowa and her troops whom he commanded, despite his several severe wounds, is still in the military service as Colonel of the Seventeenth U. S. Infantry. The company, after its mustering, became Company B. of the Thirteenth Iowa Infantry. It was a fortunate thing for the regiment, both for officers and men, that Col. M. M. Crocker was selected by the governor to command it. His military knowledge and indomitable pluck, energy and determination gave a tone and character to it in its early career that continued long after he left it to assume a higher command. A little incident occurred at Jefferson City, Missouri, while the regiment was encamped near there in February 1862, which perhaps influenced the subsequent military career of Gen. Wilson, by determining his selection for duty in the provost marshal's department of the army. The post provost marshal at Jefferson City had been ordered to St. Louis, and Gen. Wilson was directed to till the place during his absence. GEN. JAMES WILSON. 485 The district court was then in session, and information was received from reputable citizens, under oath, that six of the grand jurymen were secessionists and in avowed sympathy with the rebellion. Gen. Wilson, in his capacity as provost marshal, wrote a note to the judge, inclosing the sworn statements and requesting that the disloyalists might be discharged from the jury. The judge replied that he could not do so. Upon this he was immediately notified by Gen. Wilson that if not done at once the court room would be cleared at the point of the bayonet. The judge thereupon adjourned his court. After this result, feeling somewhat nervous and uneasy at his own assumption of authority, Gen. Wilson laid the matter, with copies of that correspondence, before Col. Crocker, who had been appointed post commander. Looking at the matter from the standpoint of a lawyer, Crocker exclaimed in his most emphatic manner, "This is a damned high-handed piece of business for an officer of your rank; such an order to a judge on the bench is without precedent." At this juncture, Capt. W. T. Clark, afterwards Brig. Gen. Clark, but then assistant adjutant general to Gen. A. J. McKean, of Iowa, commanding the district, came in, and learning the particulars, declared with the same emphasis that Crocker had employed, that Gen. Wilson's conduct would be approved by Gen. McKean, who would back him up to the full extent of his authority. In March, 1862, Gen. Wilson's regiment, the Thirteenth Iowa, was ordered up the Tennessee River, whose swelling bosom, curtained by the forest leaves of early spring, bore a majestic fleet of transports carrying a great army of recruits to victory at Shiloh. On arriving near Pittsburg Landing, Gen. Wilson was notified by Col. Crocker that he had appointed him adjutant of the regiment, to fill a vacancy. The office of adjutant of a regiment is an exceedingly important one, especially in the field, and the brightest and most scholarly young officers are usually chosen for it; so that this appointment at any time, and under any circumstances, would have been a compliment, 486 IOWA HISTORICAL RECORD. but to have been singled out for it in the face of an impending battle by such a man as Crocker was something to be really proud of. His first duty as adjutant was that of forming the regiment as it disembarked at Pittsburg Landing, and as adjutant of his regiment, Gen. Wilson took a most gallant and conspicuous part in the battle of Shiloh, in the advance on Corinth, at Bolivar, Iuka, and again at the bloody defence of Corinth, receiving honorable mention in orders from Col. Hare and Col. Crocker at Shiloh, and from Col. Crocker at Corinth. In the spring of 1863, Gen. Wilson was promoted to major, and in a few weeks later, to lieutenant colonel of his regiment, the latter advancement having been caused by the promotion of Col. Crocker to brigadier general. Up to this time the western armies had not been organized into corps. Gen. Grant, by orders from the War Department, organized the Thirteenth, Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Corps out of his command of the old Army of the Tennessee, assigning Gen. J. B. McPherson to the command of the Seventeenth Corps, in which was Gen. Wilson's regiment, one of the four Iowa regiments which formed "Crocker's Iowa Brigade," so pre-eminently conspicuous throughout that vast theatre of the war over which the Union armies of the west operated. Gen. Wilson's old backer at Jefferson City, W. T. Clark, in the organization of the Seventeenth Corps, became McPherson's assistant adjutant general, with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Lieut. Col. W. W. Belknap, of the Fifteenth Iowa, afterwards colonel, brigadier general, brevet major general, and after the war, secretary of war, was the provost marshal of the corps. After Belknap's promotion to the full colonelcy of his regiment, Gen. Wilson was fixed upon to succeed him by the issuance of the following order: Headquarter Seventeenth Army Corps, Department of the Tennessee, Milliken's Bend, La., April 23d, 1863. General Orders, No. 14. -Lieut. Col. W. W. Belknap, provost marshal, having at his own request been relieved to GEN. JAMES WILSON. 487 take command of his regiment, Lieut. Col. James Wilson, Thirteenth Regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry, is announced as provost marshal of the Seventeenth Army Corps. He will be respected and obeyed accordingly. By order of Major-General J. B. McPherson. W. T. Clark, Assistant Adjutant General. These changes occurred mostly while the Iowa brigade lay at Lake Providence, La. From thence Gen. Grant's army commenced the grand campaign, resulting in the fall of Vicksburg, preceding and during the investment of which Gen. Wilson participated as a member of Gen. McPherson's staff, doing duty in the field as an aide, in all the battles fought by the Seventeenth Corps. By direction of Gen. McPherson, he accompanied Gen. John D. Stevenson, who commanded a brigade on the extreme right of the Union line at Champion's Hill, and assisted him in leading a charge on the enemy's left, resulting in the capture of a battery of six guns and turning his flank. On the memorable Fourth of July, 1863, Gen. Wilson entered the city of Vicksburg with Gens. Grant and McPherson and many other gallant officers, who all at once and together proceeded to call upon Commodore Porter, who had steamed up to the levee, the commodore and his officers receiving those of the army in the most cordial manner, and spreading before them, dusty and camp-worn soldiers as they were, refreshments of a class that they had not seen for months. In the midst of the congratulations that ensued, Gen. Grant turned to Gen. McPherson and said in his familiar way, "Mac, as your troops occupy the place, you had better order your provost marshal to take charge and see to the wants of these people, who must be suffering for food." Gen. Wilson was obliged, not without some reluctance, to leave the agreeable surroundings and go up into the city, occupying the court house for his headquarters, including the office lately vacated by the Confederate provost marshal, and temporarily 488 IOWA HISTORICAL RECORD. using his blanks. Gen. Wilson arrived none too soon. Already hundreds of people surrounded the office, women, children and feeble men, clamoring and beseeching for help; some needing food, others medicine or medical attention for their families, others seeking help to bury the dead lying in their houses. The scene was a trying and depressing one. Instructions had been given to the quartermaster and commissary to honor his requisitions, and by night-fall most had been temporarily relieved; but the dead remained unburied, and this in July, with intensely hot weather. The next morning the city was divided into districts, and squads of men, under commissioned officers, directed to thoroughly examine every house in their districts, and first of all to bury the dead, the officers being instructed by Gen. Wilson to tear down fences and unoccupied buildings, and to use the material for boxes in which to deposit the putrefying remnants of humanity. Gradually order was evolved out of chaos. One great source of uneasiness, and even of danger, in Gen. Wilson's department was the frequent collisions, especially at night, between the National soldiers and the Confederate prisoners. There were over thirty thousand Confederates within the line of their former fortifications, and their camps adjoined the city limits; the city was filled with disreputable characters who were inside during the siege; several free fights had occurred between the Union soldiers and the prisoners who had escaped the vigilance of the sentinels at their camps. The system of districting the city was again adopted by Gen. Wilson, and on a designated night a simultaneous movement was made, resulting in thc capture of nearly all the disreputables, who were at once sent by steamboat north to Cairo. One of the most unpleasant duties devolving upon Gen. Wilson as provost marshal was that of suppressing the more flagrantly offensive exhibitions of hatred of the government frequently indulged in by the disloyal women of Vicksburg. For some time after its occupancy by the Union troops, ladies -ladies in every other respect -made themselves very GEN. JAMES WILSON. 489 obnoxious by their offensive manners toward all who wore the blue, which passing without rebuke and with little notice, led them to become still more insolent and aggressive. At last, patience ceasing to be a virtue, an example was made of some of them for the offence by the issuance of a "circular," printed by a detail from the Seventeenth Corps on the press captured with Vicksburg, of which the following is a copy, the names of the five ladies exiled thereby being suppressed for obvious reasons: Circular. Headquarters, Seventeenth A. C., Provost Marshal's Office, Vicksburg, Miss., Dec. 27, 1863. The following named persons - Miss ---, Miss ---, Miss ---, Miss ---, Mrs. ---, having acted disrespectfully toward the president and government of the United States, and having insulted the officers, soldiers and loyal citizens of the United States, who had assembled at the Episcopal Church in Vicksburg on Christmas day for divine: service, by abruptly leaving said church at that point in the services where the officiating minister prays for the welfare of the president of the United States, and all others in authority, are hereby banished, and will leave the Federal lines within forty-eight hours, under penalty of imprisonment. Hereafter, all persons, male or female, who, by word, deed, or implication, do insult or show disrespect to the president, government, or flag of the United States, or to any officer or soldier of the United States, upon matters of a national character, shall be fined, banished, or imprisoned, according to the grossness of the offence. By order of Major General McPherson. James Wilson, Lieut. Col. and Pro. Mar. 17th A. C. After the parole: of the prisoners and the settling down to the usual routine of post duties, Gen. McPherson, desiring to reward officers and men who had especially distinguished themselves during the campaign that had been so successfully 490 IOWA HISTORICAL RECORD. closed, convened a board of officers to select such as they might deem deserving of signal commendation. Gen. Wilson was one of those on whom this proud honor was conferred, being awarded in General Orders No. 13, headquarters of the Seventeenth Army Corps, a gold medal for "gallant and distinguished services in the field," the medal to be known as the Vicksburg Medal, and to be inscribed with the names of the battles he had taken part in - "Shiloh, Corinth, Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, Champion's Hill, and Vicksburg, July 4th 1863." Early in the spring of 1864, Gen. McPherson having been assigned to the command of the Army of the Tennessee, consisting of the Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Corps, these troops were moved from the neighborhood of Vicksburg to the vicinity of Chattanooga. Gen. Wilson remained near the person of McPherson, taking the position of provost marshal of the Army of the Tennessee, and continued a member of the staff of that illustrious young military leader until his death. In some notes on the subject, Gen. Wilson gives the following account of the fall of the noble McPherson: "On the 22d of July, 1864, the army being in front of Atlanta, and not expecting an attack, it being generally supposed the enemy was preparing- to evacuate the city, a large part of the Seventeenth Corps was ordered to move to the right and destroy a railroad, so as to impede the movement of the Confederate General Hood, and while engaged in this movement, indications of an impending attack were discovered, the enemy having left his works and begun advancing. The Seventeenth Corps was immediately ordered back, but before it could make a close connection with the left of the Fifteenth Corps, it was faced to the front and skirmishers thrown out, who at once became engaged with those of the enemy, and the battle commenced. The movement was in part in a rather dense piece of woods; the skirmishers thrown out by the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps covered their fronts, but left a gap in the woods between the two flanks that was open and through which the enemy's skirmishers advanced, their line GEN. JAMES WILSON. 491 being engaged both in the right and left, but their advance receiving no check through the gap. Word was received by Gen. McPherson that part of Logan's line had been driven in, and I was directed to request Gen. Logan to regain his line, and also to order up some reinforcements. I found, on reaching him, that Gen. Logan had already accomplished the movement, regaining his line and capturing De Golyer's battery of Parrott guns that had been seized by the enemy. Gen. McPherson, after seeing to the disposition of the line of the Seventeenth Corps, was proceeding to the line of Logan's command to ascertain personally the result of his orders, when he was challenged and ordered to surrender by the enemy skirmishers that had penetrated the gap between the two corps, and on wheeling his horse to retire was shot and killed.* "The country suffered a severe loss in McPherson's death," continues General Wilson, commenting on this sad event, "especially at this crisis, but Logan, upon whom the command devolved, was, as ever, prompt, ready, and equal to the emergency. As he rode down the line to the extreme left, which was being badly pressed, his presence was magnificent. The fire in his eyes and his resolute bearing inspired his men; his progress through the thick of the fight was grand and ________________________________________________________________ * It is proper that any authentic information having reference to so important an historical event as the death of Gen. McPherson should go upon record. With this view in mind, we find here an opportune occasion to say that a young soldier of an Indiana regiment, whose name is forgotten, but whose testimony there is no reason for doubting, related, soon after the occurrence, that at the time of his death he was acting as orderly to McPherson, and was the only person present with him at the time he received his wound. McPherson, he said, was shot in the body, the missile seemingly having injured his spine. Immediately upon being wounded he fell from his horse, and in so doing, his hat dropped off. With the assistance of the orderly who hod dismounted from his horse, he raised himself partially from the ground and gained a sitting posture, and then, for the first time after receiving the wound, spoke, inquiring, "Where is my hat?" The orderly found the hat a little distance off and brought it to the wounded general, who by this time was again sinking to the ground, and in a few minutes expired, without uttering another word -Ed. ________________________________________________________________ 492 IOWA HISTORICAL RECORD. imposing. No one surpassed Logan in a desperate fight, not even the most dashing of Napoleon's marshals. "McPherson's death," adds Gen. Wilson, "was to me personally a great loss and depressing to an extraordinary extent. From before the Vicksburg campaign, when I became: a member of his staff, a personal friendship had developed between us, which grew and increased with time. I had, I believe, his entire confidence, and entertained for him feelings of the highest regard. He was simple and unaffected in his manners, truthful, kind, and generous to a fault, careless of his own interests, never seeking advancement, but always ready and ever eager to advance those whom he thought deserving; and the death, upon the field of battle of one so young, so full of promise, so high in command, caused a throb of pain to be felt, not only by the army, but by our whole people. He was the only commander of an army killed in battle on our side during the war. Gen. Sherman wrote of him that "He died in battle, booted and spurred, like a gallant knight." Shortly after the fall of Atlanta, an exchange of prisoners was agreed upon between Gen. Sherman, commanding all the forces operating against Atlanta, consisting of the Army of the Tennessee, the Army of the Cumberland, and the Army of the Ohio, and the Confederate General Hood, commanding the opposing forces; the exchange to take place at a station, on the railroad near Atlanta called Rough and Ready, a field near by having been selected as neutral ground, and an old log house as the place for completing the transfer. The prisoners held by the Union forces, under an escort of two hundred men, occupied one side of the field, and those held by the Confederates, with a like escort, the opposite side. Gen. Wilson, referring to this exchange of prisoners, writes in the notes he has supplied us with to this effect: "One of the most trying scenes experienced by me during the war occurred here. I represented the Army of the Tennessee, and each of the other armies was represented by a provost marshal. The prisoners captured by the enemy from each of GEN. JAMES WILSON. 493 the armies were to be separated, and each provost marshal to take charge of those belonging to his own command. The prisoners captured by us were those that had been taken in the last few fights, and Gen. Sherman's orders were, not to exchange these prisoners excepting for a like number and rank that had been captured from us during the same period. It had occurred repeatedly that the enemy had turned over to us prisoners that had been long captured, and who were so reduced and weak as to be unfit for active service, in exchange for those lately captured by us, who were strong and able to be put at once again in the ranks. To avoid a recurrence of this unequal exchange, the general's orders were imperative as to the date of capture. The men belonging to each of our armies had been separated, and I took charge of those belonging to the Army of the Tennessee. They were drawn up in single rank, and, commencing at the right, I questioned each man as to his regiment and when he was captured, taking down his name. If he was captured within the allowed time, he was ordered five paces to the front; if not, five paces to the rear. The men at first took little notice of the proceedings, all being happy at the prospect of almost immediate release. They could see our two hundred men drawn up in line only a few rods distant, and laughed and joked among themselves. As the examination was completed, and the front line ordered to close up, and marched a short distance apart, a feeling of anxiety, soon becoming one of dread, seemed to take possession of the rear line; they realized that there was something wrong, that perhaps they would be left. These men who so lately had been filled with joy and hope at their approaching release, now cried out in agonizing tones, 'For God's sake, colonel, what are you going to do with us?' I explained to them, as well as my feelings would permit, the orders under which I was acting. Men who had faced a bayonet charge without flinching, who had assaulted works with that resolution and determination belonging only to brave men, now sobbed like children, great tears rolling down their cheeks. I could give them no comfort. In fact, I was at a 494 IOWA HISTORICAL RECORD. loss what to say. At last a change came over many of them, and most emphatic expressions of a determination never to be taken back to the prison camp were abundant. I was quite unmanned by their grief at parting with them, and hoped it would never be my lot to pass again through so trying a scene. I am glad to say that during that night, through the negligence, and perhaps the connivance, of their guards, the greater part of these poor fellows succeeded in making their escape, reaching our lines singly, and by twos and threes. Gen. Hood wrote to Gen. Sherman, charging bad faith. Sherman replied in his curt and pointed manner that it was none of his business, but a matter solely between Gen. Hood and his inefficient guards -"a prisoner's first duty was to escape if possible." On the 13th of December, 1864, Gen. Wilson was promoted to the full colonelcy of the Thirteenth Iowa, and mustered in as such at Savannah, Ga. He continued, however, as provost marshal on the staff of Gen. O. O. Howard, who was assigned to the command of the Army of the Tennessee after McPherson's death. In all the engagements participated in by the Army of the Tennessee, from Savannah, Georgia, to Columbia, South Carolina, and until the surrender of the Confederate army under Johnston, Gen. Wilson bore an honorable and often a conspicuous part. On the 13th of March, 1865, Gen. Wilson was appointed by the president a brevet brigadier general, for gallant and faithful services during the war. The armies, including the Seventeenth Corps, which had marched to Washington by way of the sea from their homes near the great lakes and the mighty rivers of the northwest, as they approached the seat of that government for the preservation of which they had fought, were now thrilled to the heart by the sight, for the first time In the most of their lives, of the national capitol, whose silvery dome glittered before their eyes in the April sun. GEN. JAMES WILSON. 495 Now came the end of the great rebellion. As sudden relaxation following long muscular tension is accompanied by pain, so the abrupt cessation of the struggle, while it presented to those composing the Union armies many causes for joy and gratulation, yet filled their hearts with a vague sadness occasioned by the contemplation of parting, one with another, and severing those ties of affection which had their origin and growth in a common danger and mutual hardships. After taking part in the grand review of the army at Washington in May, 1865, Gen. Wilson proceeded with Gen. Logan, then in command of the Veteran Army of the Tennessee, to Louisville, Kentucky, where the western armies were disbanded in June and July, 1865. Before separating with Gen. Wilson, at this joyful and at the same time painful period, Gen. Logan wrote to him in the following kind and complimentary terms: Louisville, Ky., July 23, 186. Brevet Brigadier General James Wilson: My Dear Sir: - The time having arrived that our official relations must cease to exist by the successful termination of this bloody war, I cannot part with you without expressing to you my profound gratitude for the manner in which you have conducted our department while acting as one of my staff officers. Your conduct has, at all times since my first acquaintance with you, which was early in the war, been that of gentleman and true soldier. That peace and prosperity may be yours through life is the wish of Your sincere friend, John A. Logan, Major General. At the close of the war, when the great armies on both sides of the conflict were disbanded, their subsidence into peaceful citizenship, without turbulence or anarchy, was the wonder of the world, and contrary to the forecasts of European soothsayers. Such a sudden and happy transformation from martial to civil law, from bayonets to plowshares, from military dictatorship to democratic self-government, was in a measure due to the high example set by 496 IOWA HISTORICAL RECORD. officers like Gen. Wilson, high in rank and command, to whom the men had been accustomed to look for leadership, displaying a hearty eagerness, when their military services were no longer required, to return to their former avocations of peace. Thus, returning to Iowa, Gen. Wilson resumed his former occupation as a tiller of the soil on his farm near Newton. But agricultural pursuits after all had, in some measure, lost their charm for him, and ceased to be as attractive as before. So that in 1869, when his business aptitude and experience, discovered and developed, first in the distant and romantic island of St. Michael, seemed to be invited to the prosperous town of Newton by the expansion of the commercial interests of the place, he left the farm and established at Newton the Jasper County Bank, of which he became and still remains the president. There at home, enthroned in the affection of an interesting family, sustained by all the blessings vouchsafed to man in this life, surrounded by loyal and admiring friends, many of them his former comrades in arms, in a green old age, he can calmly look upon the retrospect of the romance of real life in which he has figured the hero, congratulating himself that in every difficulty of life, in every danger of battle, in every temptation, he has borne himself truly, bravely, and without blemish. In person Gen. Wilson is well above the medium height, erect, square-built and broad-shouldered, with an inclination to plumpness, developed since he renounced the army ration and camp bed. His manner is frank, cordial and engaging. His features, expressive of firmness and benevolence, are well delineated in the accompanying portrait. ====================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. 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