Background
Orlando Bolivar Willcox was born on April 16, 1823 in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Charles and Almira (Rood) Powers Willcox. The family traces its descent from William Wilcoxson, one of the founders of Stratford, Connecticut.
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(The papers of Major General Orlando Bolivar Willcox, one ...)
The papers of Major General Orlando Bolivar Willcox, one of the most prominent division commanders in the Union army, were recently discovered locked in a trunk in a Washington, D.C., attic, virtually untouched since his death nearly a century ago. Editor Robert Garth Scott has sifted through what is arguably the largest collection of Civil War-related material to surface in fifty years. From his childhood in Detroit through his cadetship at West Point, his service in the Mexican, Seminole, and Civil Wars, and his post-Civil War experiences in the West, Willcox’s story is published here for the first time.
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Orlando Bolivar Willcox was born on April 16, 1823 in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Charles and Almira (Rood) Powers Willcox. The family traces its descent from William Wilcoxson, one of the founders of Stratford, Connecticut.
Orlando was appointed a cadet at West Point in 1843, graduated in 1847, ranking eighth in a class of thirty-eight.
He was promoted second lieutenant in the 4th Artillery. He joined his regiment in Mexico, and returned home with it in 1848. His next service was on the southern and western frontier, including campaigns against the Seminole Indians in 1856 and 1857; he was promoted first lieutenant April 30, 1850. On September 10, 1857, he resigned his commission, and entered upon the practice of law in Detroit with his brother, Eben N. Willcox. When the Civil War began he was commissioned colonel of the 16t Michigan Infantry. At Bull Run, where he commanded a brigade, he was wounded and captured, and remained a prisoner for over a year, for several months in close confinement as a hostage for Confederate privateersmen in the hands of the United States, whose status as prisoners of war was under question.
Exchanged August 19, 1862, he was made brigadier-general of volunteers, his rank dating from July 21, 1861, the date of the battle of Bull Run. He was assigned to Burnside's IX Corps, with which he served with marked distinction in the Antietam campaign and throughout the rest of the war, commanding a division. While Burnside was in command of the Army of the Potomac, and at various other times, Willcox commanded the corps; he was actively employed at Fredericksburg, Knoxville, and in the final campaigns from the Wilderness to Petersburg. For distinguished service he received the brevet rank of major-general of volunteers, August 1, 1864, and of brigadier-general and major-general in the regular service, March 2, 1867. Mustered out of the service, January 15, 1866, he returned to Detroit to resume the practice of law; but on July 28, 1866, he was reappointed in the regular army as colonel, 29th Infantry, and assigned to duty in Virginia.
In March 1869 he was transferred to the 12th Infantry, joining it at San Francisco, where he served until February 1878, except for a brief tour as superintendent of recruiting in New York. For over four years (March 1878 - September 1882), he commanded the Department of Arizona, and received the thanks of the territorial legislature for his conduct of operations against the Apache Indians. His next station was Madison Barracks, New York, where he was in command until 1886. On October 13 of that year he was promoted brigadier-general, and assumed command of the Department of the Missouri, where he remained until his retirement, April 16, 1887. In 1889 he was made governor of the Soldiers' Home in Washington, and after completing this tour of duty resided for a time in that city. In 1905 he took up his residence in Coburg, Ontario, where he remained until his death.
(The papers of Major General Orlando Bolivar Willcox, one ...)
(This is a reproduction of a classic text optimised for ki...)
Willcox was twice married; first, in 1852, to Marie Louise, daughter of Chancellor Elon Farnsworth of Detroit; second, to Julia Elizabeth (McReynolds) Wyeth, widow of Charles J. Wyeth of Detroit. He had six children, five by his first marriage and one by the second.