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Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox was born on May 20, 1824 in Wayne County, N. C. , where his father, Reuben Wilcox, a native of Connecticut, had settled, marrying Sarah Garland, a noted North Carolina beauty. Of this union Cadmus was the second among four children. His parents removing to Tipton County, Tenn.
He grew up in Tipton County, Tenn. , attending the University of Nashville. He entered the United States Military Academy in 1842, at the age of eighteen (Official Register, 1843), and was graduated in 1846 in the class with George B. McClellan, Thomas Jonathan Jackson, and George E. Pickett.
Appointed brevet second lieutenant, 4th Infantry, he joined General Taylor's forces in Mexico and fought at Monterey, but was promoted second lieutenant, 7th Infantry, Feburary 16, 1847, and transferred to General Scott's army. He was at Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, and in the advance on Mexico City, so distinguishing himself that in July General John A. Quitman appointed him an aide. Wilcox led the storming party at Chapultepec, and afterward nearly lost his life by mounting an aqueduct under fire to signal the American capture of the Belen gate and entry into the city of Mexico. In 1848, when Lieut. Ulysses S. Grant was married, Wilcox was his groomsman. Three years later he became a first lieutenant, serving in Florida, and then, 1852-57, as assistant instructor of infantry tactics at West Point. Failing health brought him a year's sick leave in Europe. On his return he published Rifles and Rifle Practice (1859), the first American textbook on this subject, and in 1860 translated from the French a work on Austrian evolutions of the line. Having been commissioned captain, December 20, 1860, Wilcox was in New Mexico when Tennessee seceded. Though attached to the Union, he resigned his commission June 8, 1861, and accepted the colonelcy of the 9th Alabama Infantry, Confederate States Army. He was present at First Manassas (Bull Run), and thereafter until Appomattox was with Lee's army in nearly every great battle, establishing a record as one of the best subordinate commanders of the South. He was made a brigadier-general as of October 21, 1861. In the Seven Days' battles his brigade lost 1, 055 men out of 1, 800. Wilcox himself was never wounded, though he received six bullets through his clothing in ferocious fighting at Frazier's Farm, where he defeated Meade's brigade. At Second Manassas (August 30, 1862), he ably commanded three brigades, and in the Chancellorsville campaign, Sedgwick could hardly have been beaten at Salem Church but for Wilcox's stubborn resistance while awaiting reinforcements. On July 2, 1863, at Gettysburg, he made a charge which, if supported, might have ruptured the Union center. The next day, however, with Pickett, he suffered a bloody repulse. In January 1864 Wilcox was made a major-general, to rank from August 1863. He was given William Dorsey Pender's old division, with which at the Wilderness and Spotsylvania he greatly enhanced his reputation as a skilful tactician. At Petersburg, April 2, 1865, part of his troops held Forts Gregg and Alexander until they were nearly annihilated, enabling Longstreet to cover Lee's retreat westward. Seven days later, at Appomattox Court House, Wilcox's division was ordered to support Gordon's corps in attempting to break through the Union lines, but the Confederate surrender terminated operations. While Grant and Lee negotiated, some of the Union generals, including Sheridan, Ingalls, and Gibbon, rode forward to find their old friend Wilcox, bringing him back to visit Grant. After the war Wilcox, a bachelor, resided in Washington with the widow and two children of his elder brother. Devoted to their care, he declined leaving them for a commission in the Egyptian army, or in Korea. President Cleveland in 1886 appointed him chief of the railroad division of the General Land Office, a position he retained until his death.
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Quotes from others about the person
"I know of no man of rank on the Southern side who had more warm friends, North and South, than Cadmus M. Wilcox, " wrote Gen. Henry Heth. That opinion was justified at his funeral, where Gen. Joseph E. Johnston was chief mourner, while four distinguished Union officers and four Confederates were honorary pallbearers.
