Asa Waldo Wildes, Jr.

He trained as a civil engineer from age 16, and worked on railroad construction projects in Maine. He was chief engineer of the Maysville & Lexington (KY) 1850 to 55, of the Marquette & Ontonagon (MI) in 1857, and the Grand Rapids & Indiana in 1859. He returned to Maine and was appointed Lieutenant Colonel on the staff of Governor Washburn in 1860. He was commissioned Colonel of the new 16th Maine Infantry in May 1862.

He commanded the Regiment in Maryland - detached on railroad guard duty after 13 September 1862.

He resigned his commission later in 1862 due to "serious illness, caused by long exposure."

He was appointed Maine Railroad Commissioner in 1862 and served as such to his death. He was a resident of Skowhegan at that time.

Basic information from a memorial in the Maine Bugle, Vol. 2, Issue 1 (January 1895), pp. 81-82 and Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine, by Henry Sweetser Burrage and Albert Roscoe Stubbs (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1909), pg. 214. His photograph from a CDV in the Maine State Archives1. His father graduated from Dartmouth College in 1809.

His 1857 daybook is in the University of Michigan Clements Library.

08/22/1822; Newburyport, MA

09/03/1894; Augusta, ME