Horatio Wright

Horatio G. Wright

Horatio Governor Wright (* 6. March 1820 in Clinton , † 2. July 1899 in Washington ,) was during the Civil War as a major general commander of the VI. Army Corps and Chief of Engineers of the United States Army from 1879 to 1884 .

Life

Horatio Wright was born in Clinton, Connecticut in 1820, the second of three sons to Edward and Nancy Wright . He graduated from Norwich University (USMA) in 1837 and completed the West Point Military Academy as the second best in his class until 1841 . After graduation, he served from 1842 as a lieutenant for two years as an assistant to the professor of engineering at West Point.

Wright met Louisa Marcella Bradford from Culpeper on August 11, 1842, and married her soon after. Louisa was the daughter of Samuel K. Bradford and Emily Slaughter. The Slaughter family was a large and influential family in the Culpeper area, and his father-in-law, Samuel, was a well-respected farmer. Many members of the Slaughter family served in the CSA during the Civil War since then. Horatio and Louisa moved to Washington in 1856, where they lived until their death. The marriage were blessed with 3 children.

In 1848 he was appointed first lieutenant and in 1855 captain . From 1846 to 1856 he served successively as a commandant at Forts Taylor and Fort Jefferson. As assistant to the Chief of Engineer of the Army, he was commissioned from 1856 to 1861 to improve and test the transport options for coastal guns and the suitability of 15-inch shells for the guns.

During the Civil War, he first served as chief engineer of the 3rd Division under General Samuel Heintzelman in the Battle of Bull Run . On September 16, 1861, he was made Brigadier General and commanded a brigade in the Port Royal Expedition. In February 1862 he was on the expedition that was directed against Fernandina (Florida) and led a division in the attack on Secessionville (South Carolina) in June 1862. Then he was hired by the Department of War to command the Department of Ohio , based in Cincinnati . Although he was appointed major general for it in July 1862, the Senate revoked this premature promotion.

In the spring of 1863 he then commanded a division of VI. Corps of the Potomac Army and took part in the fighting at Gettysburg , Rappahannock Station and Mine Run. During the Battle of Brandy Station (June 9, 1863), the opposing commander Jubal Early used the Bradford family's 'Afton' house, built in 1841 by Louisa's father, as his headquarters. After the Battle of the Wilderness (May 6, 1864) he took command of the VI. Corps because General Sedgwick was killed in the Battle of Spotsylvania . On May 12, 1864, he was promoted to major general and led his troops in the Battle of Cold Harbor and at the beginning of the Petersburg Campaign. In July 1864, his corps was subordinated to Major General Philip H. Sheridan's troops to guarantee the defense of the capital Washington. Wright was wounded twice in the war, first at the Battle of Spotsylvania and then again at the Battle of Cedar Creek (October 19). He was on duty in the Shenandoah Valley until December 1864 and then returned to the main theater of war. His troops took part in the siege of Petersburg in 1865 and, at the end of the war, took up the pursuit of the defeated army under General Lee to Appomattox .

After the Civil War, Wright served as the military governor of Texas from March 1865 to 1866 . During the following career he took on numerous military technical tasks. He was a member of the Board of Engineers for Fortifications and a planner of numerous river and port regulations. His engineers built a reservoir system on the upper reaches of the Mississippi River and initiated the first extensive work on the regulation of the lower reaches of the river. On June 30, 1879, he was appointed chief of the Engineers of Army. He completed the construction of the Washington Monument in 1884 , the work of which had been suspended during the war. General Wright retired from the army on March 6, 1884 on the day of his 64th birthday, due to his age. He died on July 2, 1899 in Washington, DC. and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery . The obelisk that marks his tomb was made by survivors of the VI. Army Corps, the Potomac Army, which he commanded until the end of the war. His wife Louisa died a year later and is buried next to him in Arlington National Cemetery.

Web links

• https://historycentral.com/Bio/UGENS/USAWright.html
• http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/hgwright.htm