Civil War
When the Civil War began, Willcox was practicing law in Detroit. He was appointed colonel of the 1st Michigan Volunteer Infantry. He was wounded and captured in the First Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas) while in command of a brigade in Maj. Gen. Samuel P. Heintzelman's division. He later received the Medal of Honor in 1895 for "most distinguished gallantry" during the battle.
After his release and exchange more than a year later, on August 19, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Willcox a brigadier general of volunteers, to rank from July 1, 1861. The President had to submit the nomination three times, the last on March 7, 1863, before the U.S. Senate finally confirmed the appointment on March 11, 1863. Willcox commanded the 1st Division of Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside's IX Corps in 1862. He led the division at the Battle of Antietam and the corps at the Battle of Fredericksburg.
During the 1863 draft riots, Willcox commanded the District of Indiana and Michigan. He again led a division at Knoxville and during Lt. Gen.Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign. On December 12, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln nominated Willcox for appointment to the brevet grade of major general of volunteers to rank from August 1, 1864, and the U.S. Senate confirmed the appointment on April 14, 1865. Following the Siege of Petersburg, he led the first troops to enter Petersburg, Virginia, before ending the war serving in North Carolina. He was mustered out of the volunteers on January 15, 1866.
Read more about this topic: Orlando B. Willcox
Famous quotes related to civil war:
“The principle of majority rule is the mildest form in which the force of numbers can be exercised. It is a pacific substitute for civil war in which the opposing armies are counted and the victory is awarded to the larger before any blood is shed. Except in the sacred tests of democracy and in the incantations of the orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend that the rule of the majority is not at bottom a rule of force.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“During the Civil War the area became a refuge for service- dodging Texans, and gangs of bushwhackers, as they were called, hid in its fastnesses. Conscript details of the Confederate Army hunted the fugitives and occasional skirmishes resulted.”
—Administration in the State of Texa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“We have heard all of our lives how, after the Civil War was over, the South went back to straighten itself out and make a living again. It was for many years a voiceless part of the government. The balance of power moved away from it—to the north and the east. The problems of the north and the east became the big problem of the country and nobody paid much attention to the economic unbalance the South had left as its only choice.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“To the cry of ‘follow Mormons and prairie dogs and find good land,’ Civil War veterans flocked into Nebraska, joining a vast stampede of unemployed workers, tenant farmers, and European immigrants.”
—For the State of Nebraska, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)