Open main menu
Open main menu
O. B. Willcox
(1823 - 1907)
Home State: Michigan
Education: US Military Academy, West Point, NY, Class of 1847
Command Billet: Commanding Division
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 1st Division, 9th Corps
see his Battle Report
Before Antietam
He graduated from the USMA in 1847, was in the Mexican war, served in New Mexico, Massachusetts, and Florida, and resigned in 1857. He then was a lawyer. In May 1861 he was appointed Colonel of the 1st Michigan Regiment. He commanded the 2nd Brigade/3rd Division at First Bull Run, where he was wounded, won the Medal of Honor, and was captured. He was released in August 1862 and appointed Brigadier General of Volunteers (to rank from June 1861).
On the Campaign
He commanded the First Division of the Ninth Army Corps in Maryland
The rest of the War
He was in command of the 9th Corps at Fredericksburg, served in Kentucky, commanded the 3rd Division/9th Corps at the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, and led the 1st Division/9th Corps at Petersburg.
After the War
He was a lawyer, and continued Army service from 1866. He commanded the Department of Arizona, fought in the Apache wars, and retired in 1887. He was later governor of Washington's Soldiers' Home.
References & notes
Photo from a set at the National Archives (NARA) posted online by Michael Robert Patterson1.
Birth
1823
Death
1907
1 Patterson, Michael Robert, Burials In Arlington National Cemetery, Published 1996-, first accessed 01 January 2001, <http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/>, Source page: Army/Willcox [AotW citation 36]