John Thomas Wilder, the son of Reuben and Mary (Merritt) Wilder, was born on January 31, 1830 in Hunter Village, Greene County, N. Y. He was a descendant of Edward Wilder, whose mother Martha Wilder, came to America on the ship Confidence in 1638. As a lad John served as apprenticed draftsman in a millwright plant in Columbus, Ohio. Subsequently, he established himself as a foundryman and millwright in Greensburg, Ind.
Wilder he attended school in Hunter.
He enlisted as a private in the 16t Independent Battery April 21, 1861, and the following day he was elected captain. On June 12 of the same year he was appointed by Gov. Oliver P. Morton lieutenant-colonel of the 17th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and was advanced to the colonelcy on March 2. His command saw its first field service in West Virginia. It was with Buell's army in the second day's battle at Shiloh, after which Wilder was given command, as senior colonel, of a brigade which served at Munfordville, Ky. , and in the Tullahoma campaign in Middle Tennessee. In June 1863, when Hoover's Gap of Cumberland Mountains was held by a strong Confederate force to give time to Bragg's main army to fall back towards Chattanooga, Wilder's brigade by the celerity of its movements forced the Gap open and pursued its defenders on their retreat. This engagement caused the brigade thereafter to be called "Wilder's Lightning Brigade. " It was composed of the Indiana and Illinois infantry regiments, but it differed from other infantry commands in that its men were equipped, at the instance of Wilder, with the then new model Spencer repeating rifles, and its troopers were mounted. It led the advance of Rosecrans' army to the environs of Chattanooga and was the first brigade to enter the city. In the major battle of Chickamauga, engaging as a distinct unit, it acquitted itself brilliantly, and Wilder was recommended by Maj. -Gen. George H. Thomas for promotion to the rank of brigadier-general "for his ingenuity and fertility of resource and for his valor and the many qualities of commander displayed by him in the numerous engagements of his brigade with the enemy before and during the battle of Chickamauga. " On August 6, 1864, Wilder was brevetted brigadier-general. Resigning from the army in October 1864, he removed to Chattanooga and took a leading part in the development of the natural resources around that city. In 1867 he founded the Roane Iron Works, and at Rockwood he built one of the first blast furnaces in the South. He died at Jacksonville, Fla. He was buried in Forest Hills Cemetery, Chattanooga.
In 1870 he established a rail mill in Chattanooga. He was also active in the promotion and partial construction (1890 - 92) of the Charleston, Cincinnati & Chicago Railroad (now the Clinchfield Railroad). For himself and his associates he acquired about half a million acres of iron and coal lands in Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, and built the Carnegie furnace at Johnson City. Tennesseans rank him high among the developers of the state's resources. He served as mayor and postmaster of Chattanooga, as pension agent at Knoxville, and as a commissioner of Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Park.
He was a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, and an honorary member of the Iron and Steel Institute of Great Britain.
Tall and well-proportioned, Wilder was a striking figure - capable of the great endurance which his initiative and energy impelled.
On May 18, 1858, he was married to Martha Stewart. His first wife died Feburary 29, 1892, and in 1904 he married Dora E. Lee. He had five daughters and one son of his first marriage.
