Background
Cadmus Marcellus was born on May 29, 1824, in Wayne County, North Carolina, United States. He was the son of Reuben and Sarah Garland Wilcox. His family moved to Tipton County, Tennessee when Cadmus was two.
1 Cumberland Square, Lebanon, TN 37087, United States
Wilcox attended Cumberland College (now Cumberland University).
Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Wilcox attended the University of Nashville in Tennessee.
West Point, New York, United States
Cadmus graduated fifty-fourth in a class of fifty-nine from the United States Military Academy in 1846.
Cadmus Marcellus was born on May 29, 1824, in Wayne County, North Carolina, United States. He was the son of Reuben and Sarah Garland Wilcox. His family moved to Tipton County, Tennessee when Cadmus was two.
Wilcox attended Cumberland College (now Cumberland University) and the University of Nashville in Tennessee from 1840 to 1842. He graduated fifty-fourth in a class of fifty-nine from the United States Military Academy in 1846.
Wilcox went to Monterrey as an aide to Major General John A. Quitman during the Mexican War. Later promoted to the first lieutenant for his gallantry at Chapultepec and Mexico City, he was promoted to the first lieutenant in 1851. From 1852 to 1857, he was an assistant instructor of military tactics at West Point.
Cadmus took a year's furlough to Europe for health reasons and published Rifles and Rifle Practice (1859) before returning to active duty as a captain in New Mexico in 1860. Although he was a unionist, he resigned from the United States Army on June 9, 1861, and entered the Confederate Army as colonel of the 9th Alabama Regiment. He was promoted to brigadier general on October 21, 1861.
Wilcox rendered important service at the battle of Williamsburg, led three brigades at Gaines’ Mill, and was a hero at Frayser’s Farm during the Seven Days. He also fought at Seven Pines, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg before his promotion to major general on August 13, 1863. Thereafter, he participated in all major engagements of the Army of Northern Virginia to Appomattox.
His retention of Fort Gregg at the end of the war enabled Lee to hold the interior line below Petersburg. He surrendered at Appomattox and was soon paroled. After the war, he declined a command in the Egyptian army.
Wilcox lived in Washington, D.C., where he held various government posts, including chief of the railroad division of the United States Land Office in 1886.
Wilcox was a lifelong bachelor.