Background
Horatio Wright was born on March 6, 1820, in Clinton, Connecticut, his parents being Edward Wright and Nancy Elderkin.
Horatio Wright was born on March 6, 1820, in Clinton, Connecticut, his parents being Edward Wright and Nancy Elderkin.
When he was 14 he entered Alden Partridge's military academy in Vermont (now Norwich University). In 1837, he entered the United States Military Academy.
Wright graduated second in his class of 52 and was appointed second lieutenant, Engineer Corps, July 1, 1841. Before 1846 he had served as assistant to the board of engineers and as instructor at the military academy, and had accompanied the secretary of war on a military inspection tour. The following ten years he spent in Florida, superintending river and harbor improvements at St. Augustine and on the St. John's River, and constructing fortifications at Tortugas and Key West. Having become a captain, July 1, 1855, he was assistant to the chief engineer at Washington when the Civil War began. In a daring attempt to destroy the Norfolk navy yard dry dock on the night of April 20, 1861, Wright was captured but was soon released. Late in May he began building Fort Ellsworth and other defenses of the capital, and at Bull Run was chief engineer of the division under Samuel Peter Heintzelman. Shortly after that disastrous battle he became chief engineer for the brilliantly successful Port Royal expedition, and commanded the 3rd Brigade, which occupied Fort Walker on November 7. Promoted brigadier-general of volunteers on September 14, 1861, in the following February he headed the expedition which seized Jacksonville, St. Augustine, and other points in Florida, going thence to Morris Island, South Carolina, and leading a division in the attack on Secessionville, June 16, 1862. The Department of the Ohio was now (August 19) entrusted to him, and he cooperated efficiently with Generals D. C. Buell and W. S. Rosecrans in their Kentucky and Tennessee campaigns until again ordered east, May 18, 1863. Here he took the 16th Division of Gen. John Sedgwick's VI Corps. His brigades saw little fighting at Gettysburg, but on November 7 following, they carried the Confederate redoubts at Rappahannock Bridge in a dashing assault, and forced the river crossings, subsequently taking an important share in the Mine Run campaign. Beginning May 4, 1864, Wright participated in every battle of the Wilderness campaign. After the death of General Sedgwick at Spotsylvania, May 9, he took the VI Corps, which he commanded thereafter, and his troops bore the brunt of the terrible fighting in the Bloody Angle on May 12. Commissioned major-general of volunteers from this date, in July with his corps he was hurriedly sent to save Washington from Early's raid, and repelled the enemy, July 12, at the very edge of the capital. He fought under Sheridan in the autumn campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, and on October 19 at Cedar Creek, where he was wounded, he commanded the army until Sheridan's arrival. Returning to Petersburg, his troops were the first to penetrate the Confederate works on April 2, 1865, and were chiefly instrumental in capturing Ewell's corps at Sailors' Creek on April 6. From July 20, 1865, to August 28, 1866, Wright commanded the Department of Texas. Thenceforward he became engaged on such important engineering projects as the East River bridge, New York; the Sutro tunnel, Nevada; Delaware Breakwater Harbor of Refuge; the South Pass jetties on the Mississippi, and the completion of the Washington Monument. He was also active in the improvement of heavy ordnance and gun carriages. Meantime promoted through grades to brigadier-general in the regular army, and chief of engineers on June 30, 1879, he was retired on March 6, 1884.
Horatio Gouverneur Wright died on July 2, 1899, in Washington, D. C.
On August 11, 1842, Horatio Wright married Louisa Marcella Bradford. Their marriage produced three children.