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J.W. Wolcott

J.W. Wolcott

Federal (USV)

Captain

John Wesley Wolcott

(1819 - 1885)

Home State: Massachusetts

Command Billet: Battery Commander

Branch of Service: Artillery

Unit: Maryland Light Artillery, Battery A

Before Antietam

A broker in Roxbury, MA, he gave his age as 39 (he was 42) when he was commissioned First Lieutenant, 2nd Massachusetts Light Artillery on 31 July 1861. While in Baltimore with his battery on 18 December 1861, he was discharged to accept the commission as Captain of the new Battery A, Maryland Light Artillery to date from 21 November 1861.

On the Campaign

He commanded the battery in action on the Maryland Campaign.

The rest of the War

He resigned his commission on 31 December 1862.

After the War

He continued in the brokerage business with his pre-war partner and brother-in-law William T. Eustis until his death in 1885.

References & notes

Service from Wilmer1 and Soldiers, Sailors and Marines.2 Life details from a notice in the Proceedings of the Bostonian Society of 12 January 1886 and W.T. Eustis' sketch in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register (1907). His picture from a hand-tinted, large format albumen print of 4 officers of the 2nd Massachusetts Artillery taken in late 1861, thanks to owner Chris Carroll. Chris shared it with the Civil War Talk group in 2015.

Wolcott married Henrietta Louisa Tracy Eustis (1828-1903) in 1845, and they had four children together.

More on the Web

A CDV of him is in the Charles W. Jenks Carte de Visite Collection [finding aid] at the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston.

Birth

07/21/1819; Portland, ME

Death

06/04/1885; Dedham, MA

Notes

1   Wilmer, L. Allison, and J.H. Jarrett, George H. Vernon, State Commissioners, History and Roster of Maryland Volunteers, War of 1861-5, Baltimore: Press of Guggenheimer, Weil & Co., 1898, Vol. 1, pg. 797  [AotW citation 20766]

2   Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Adjutant General, Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in the Civil War, 8 Vols, Norwood (MA): Norwood Press, 1931-35, Vol. 5, pg. 370  [AotW citation 20767]