Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox

From Dixiepedia: The PC-Free Encyclopedia

Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox (20 May 1824 – 2 December 1890) was born in Wayne County, North Carolina but grew up in Tipton County, Tennessee. His mother was a North Carolinian and his father was a Connecticut Yankee. He graduated from West Point 54th in his class (1846) and was breveted 1st Lieutenant in Mexico for his service at Chapultepec and Mexico City. Following that, he served in frontier America posts and as an instructor back at West Point. While there, he wrote a book on rifle practice. Cadmus Wilcox joined the Confederate States Army as a Colonel in July of 1861, and became a Brigadier on 21 October, assigned to Major General James Longstreet's Division. At Seven Pines, Wilcox proved to be an able leader despite the fact his Alabama troops suffered the highest casualties in the Confederate Army. Wilcox shone at 2nd Manassas and at Fredericksburg, but his greatest moment was at Chancellorsville. Wilcox' Brigade was assigned to guard Banks Ford along the Rappahannock River, away from the main battleground. Wilcox' maintained his vigilance and discovered a Union effort to strick General Robert Edward Lee's army from the rear. An enemy corps was moving toward Chancellorsville from the direction of Fredericksburg, and Wilcox employed a holding action at Salem Church; he stalled the Union advance long enough for Lee to assault the Federals, then commanded by Major General Joseph Hooker, and to turn and meet the new threat. Wilcox participated in the Gettysburg Campaign, but he sustained heavy losses in the third day's fighting when attempting to support Pickett's charge. He was nevertheless promoted to Major General and sent to command a division in Lt. General Ambrose P. Hill's Third Corps. As a part of Hills command, Wilcox was usually in the heaviest fighting at The Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Petersburg. Wilcox held his men together even while the Petersburg seige weakened the Confederate forces. On 2 April 1865, his men held Fort Gregg and denied the Union Army acess to Petersburg itself. Then on 9 April 1865, Wilcox surrendered with the rest of The Army of Northern Virginia. Following the war, Wilcox resided in Washington, DC; and from 1886 until his death in 1890, he held the post of cheif of the railroad division of the U.S. Goverment Land Office.