BIO:  Sergt. N. G. WILSON, Gettysburg, Adams County, PA

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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania
Chicago:  Warner, Beers & Co., 1886
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Part III, History of Adams County, Pages 376-377

SERGT. N. G. WILSON, superintendent of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery at 
Gettysburg, was born in Adams County, October 6, 1832, a son of Benjamin and 
Susan (Wierman) Wilson.  The birth of Benjamin, who was a farmer, occurred March 
7, 1801, and his death September 4, 1834.  Susan, his wife, was born June 6, 
1808, and died June 26, 1884.  Benjamin and Sarah Wilson, the great-grandparents 
of Sergt. Wilson, were among the early settlers of Adams County.  Their marriage 
occurred December 14, 1774, and they died – Banjamin August 3, 1813, and Sarah 
November 12, 1815.  The grand-parents of our subject were George and 
Sarah Wilson, whose marriage occurred May 30, 1718***, and their death October 
27, 1859, and March 30, 1831, respectively.  Sergt. Wilson was one of three 
children born to his parents:  Sarah, born July 1, 1831, N. G., born October 6, 
1832, and Benjamin F., born December 9, 1834.  Our subject was brought up on his 
grandfather’s farm, where he remained until he was sixteen years of age, when he 
commenced to learn the blacksmith’s trade, at which he worked for several years.  
He learned to run an engine and for a period conducted a stationary engine in 
Bendersville; subsequently he followed teaming, which occupation he left to 
enlist in Company G, One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Regiment, Pennsylvania 
Volunteer Infantry, in which he served three years as first sergeant, preferring 
that rank to a commission which was tendered him.  Sergt. Wilson received a 
severe wound in the right hand from a rebel sharpshooter at the battle of 
Monocacy, Md., July 9, 1864, which has made him a cripple for life, depriving 
him almost entirely of the use of his hand, two fingers having been shot off.  
At the close of the war he returned to his native country and continued his 
business as a teamster until 1873, when he was appointed to his present position 
by the Secretary of War.  He is a Republican in politics.  He was elected as one 
of the directors of the Battle-field Memorial Association in 1880, and is a 
member of the G. A. R. of Gettysburg.  He has been the corresponding secretary 
of Corp. Skelly Post, No. 9, at Gettysburg, also quartermaster of the same since 
1878.  In 1852 he was married to Willimina E. Eyster, who died March 2, 1855, 
leaving one daughter, Sarah R.  February 12, 1857, our subject was then married 
to Eleanora Walter, by who he had one child, Susan.  The Sergeant is the 
recipient of many fine presents and mementos from the Grand Army Organizations, 
as tokens of their high regard for him.  It will not be saying too much to add 
that his courtesy and gentlemanly bearing have won for him an esteem that is 
unexcelled among any of the members of the G. A. R. of the United States.

***Transcriber’s Note:  Date typed as written in source material.