John T. Wilder - Civil War

Civil War

With the outbreak of the Civil War, Wilder enlisted as a private in the 1st Indiana Battery in April 1861, and was elected a captain shortly thereafter. Governor Oliver P. Morton appointed him as the lieutenant colonel of the 17th Indiana Infantry Regiment three months later. On March 2, 1862, Wilder became the regiment's colonel. Serving in Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell's Army of the Ohio, he saw his first combat at the Battle of Shiloh. In recognition for his performance and potential, he was assigned command of a brigade of infantry.

In the 1862 Confederate offensive into Kentucky, Gen. Braxton Bragg's army left Chattanooga, Tennessee, in late August. Bragg approached Munfordville, a station on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad where Wilder commanded the Union garrison, which consisted of three regiments with extensive fortifications. Wilder refused Brig. Gen. James R. Chalmers's demand to surrender on September 14 and his men repulsed Chalmers's attacks that day, forcing the Confederates to conduct siege operations September 15–16. By this time, Wilder's 4,000 men were almost completely surrounded by 22,000 Confederates with 100 artillery pieces. Realizing that Union reinforcements were nearby and not wanting to kill or injure innocent civilians, the Confederates communicated still another demand for surrender. Wilder personally entered enemy lines blindfolded under a flag of truce, and Maj. Gen. Simon B. Buckner escorted him to view all the Confederate troops and to convince him of the futility of resisting. Impressed, Wilder surrendered his garrison. The formal ceremony occurred on September 17. Wilder spent two months as a prisoner of war before being exchanged.

Wilder received wide attention for his performance in the Tullahoma Campaign. He mounted his brigade on horses and mules that his men appropriated from the local area and moved into the battle with such rapidity that his men soon became known as the "Lightning Brigade". (They were also known as the "Hatchet Brigade" because Wilder issued them long handled hatchets to carry instead of cavalry sabers.) His men also carried Spencer repeating rifles, which were capable of a rate of firepower far greater than their Confederate adversaries. Bypassing Army red tape, Wilder had asked his men to vote on purchasing the rifles and they agreed unanimously. He obtained a loan from his hometown bank and each man of the brigade co-signed a personal loan of $35 for his rifle. Embarrassed, the Government paid for the weapons before the men expended any of their personal money. The Lightning Brigade seized and held Hoover's Gap, defeating repeated attempts to dislodge his force, winning the most significant battle in the Tullahoma Campaign. Wilder was the principal commander of a diversion launched against Chattanooga, Tennessee—artillery bombardments known as the Second Battle of Chattanooga—deceiving the Confederates into thinking the Union army would approach Chattanooga from the north in conjunction with Union forces at Knoxville.

Just before the start of the Battle of Chickamauga, Wilder's brigade played a crucial role at Alexander's Bridge on September 18, 1863, defending the crossing of West Chickamauga Creek and helping to prevent the Confederates from flanking the Union army. On the second day at Chickamauga, September 20, Wilder's brigade with its superior firepower was one of the few units that was not immediately routed by the Confederate onslaught against the Union right flank. Advancing from its reserve position, the brigade launched a strong counterattack, driving the enemy around and through what became known as "Bloody Pond". Wilder decided to capitalize on this success by attacking the flank of the main Confederate column. However, just then Assistant Secretary of War Charles A. Dana found Wilder and excitedly proclaimed that the battle was lost and demanded to be escorted to Chattanooga. In the time that Wilder took to calm down the secretary and arrange a small detachment to escort him back to safety, the opportunity for a successful attack was lost and he ordered his men to withdraw to the west.

Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas formally commended Colonel Wilder for his performance at Chickamauga. Wilder did not directly participate in the main Battles for Chattanooga in November, but he led the brigade during much of the Atlanta Campaign in the spring and summer of 1864. He was promoted to brevet brigadier general of volunteers on August 7, 1864. Throughout much of 1863 in 1864, Wilder suffered from bouts of dysentery brought on by a case of typhoid fever in 1862. For health reasons, he resigned from the Army in October 1864 and returned home.