Open main menu
Open main menu
![[no picture yet]](images/none.gif)
[no picture yet]
(1834 - 1929)
Home State: New York
Command Billet: Staff Officer
Branch of Service: Engineers
Unit: 1st Division, 1st Corps
Before Antietam
He entered service in December 1861, and by 3 March 1862 was 2nd Lieutenant, Co. D, 95th New York Infantry.1 He was detached to Brigadier General Doubleday's staff in July 1862.
On the Campaign
He was on Brigadier General Doubleday's staff at Antietam as topographical engineer. He created a well known map of the battlefield for Doubleday immediately afterward.
The rest of the War
He continued as cartogropher, mapping in Virgnia, and served as an engineer; building fortifications, roads and docks.2
He was promoted to Captain and aide-de-camp in April 1863, and joined Major General John Reynolds' staff. He was with the General when he was killed on 1 July at Gettysburg, and accompanied the body home to Pennsylvania. He did produce a map of the action at Gettysburg, but resigned (or was dropped) from the service on 30 September 1863.1,2
After the War
He had been a "leading church designer in Chicago and New York City", and had worked in Nebraska. He was partner with Clarence Johnson in St. Paul, Minnesota (Willcox and Johnston) 1885 to 18893, and with William E. Boone in Seattle (Boone and Willcox) from 1889 to 1892, where he designed at least one early "skyscraper".4 He then moved to California, and by the mid-1890s was a practicing architect in Los Angeles. He practiced in San Francisco from 1899 to 1904.5
Birth
05/26/1834; New York City, NY
Death
02/1/1929; Yountville, CA
1 Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, pg. 1039 [AotW citation 430]
2 From pension and muster records.
Hoelzl, Chris, and Robert Hampton, Civil War Map Company, Published c. 2003, first accessed 15 February 2006, <http://www.civilwarmaps.com/>, Source page: /willcox.html [AotW citation 431]
3 From the Clarence H. Johnston Papers, 1889-1955, Northwest Architectural Archives, Manuscript Division.
University of Minnesota, Regents, and the University Libraries, Special Collections and Archives, Published c. 2004, first accessed 15 February 2006, <http://special.lib.umn.edu/>, Source page: /findaid/html/mss/nwaa0050.html [AotW citation 432]
4 Biographical essay by Heather M. MacIntosh: Boone, William E. (1830-1921), citing: Jeffrey Karl Ochsner, "William E. Boone," in Shaping Seattle Architecture: A Historical Guide to the Architects, ed. by Jeffrey Karl Ochsner (Seattle: University of Washington Press,1994), 16-21.
History Ink, HistoryLink: the Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History, Published c. 2003, first accessed 15 February 2006, <http://www.historylink.org/>, Source page: /essays/output.cfm?file_id=65 [AotW citation 433]
5 Enns-Rempel, Kevin Mark, and John Edward Powell, Guide to Historic Architecture in Fresno, California, Published c. 2005, first accessed 15 February 2006, <http://historicfresno.org/>, Source page: /bio/willcox.htm [AotW citation 434]