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W.C. Wilson
(1842 - 1897)
Home State: Massachusetts
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 104th New York Infantry
Before Antietam
A 20 year old student in Massachusetts, he enrolled at Troy, NY and was elected First Lieutenant of Company K, 104th New York Infantry on 27 December 1861. He was discharged when the regiment initially failed to form, but re-enrolled at their consolidation and reorganization on 6 March 1862 and mustered as 2nd Lieutenant of Company K. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on 1 August (to date from 19 July).
On the Campaign
He was wounded in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862.
The rest of the War
He was promoted to Captain on 21 October (to date from 29 July). He was captured on 1 July 1863 at Gettysburg, PA and was a prisoner at Libby Prison in Richmond, then in Charlottesville, VA. He was paroled or escaped in February 1865, was promoted and mustered as Major on 17 March (rank from 3 March) 1865, and was discharged 7 days later.
After the War
He moved to Philadelphia in about 1875 and established a large circulating library/bookstore there. He was also a noted amateur chess player and coach, and in 1880 was living in a house on North 11th Street with another skilled player, Lorenzo Barbour (1840-1895). After about 20 years in business ...
William C. Wilson, known to book sellers and book users in many cities of the country and particularly in Philadelphia, was murdered in the main room of his library building, 1117 Walnut St., last night [16 August 1897]. Robbery was undoubtedly the motive for the crime, and the blows that crushed out the old man's life were struck not later than 7 P.M. while Walnut St. was crowded with people going home from work ...His murder was never solved and no one was convicted of the crime.
References & notes
His service basics from the State of New York.1 Personal details from the US Census of 1880 and a bio sketch in Gustavus C Reichhelm & Walter P Shipley's Chess in Philadelphia (1898). His gravesite is on Findagrave, source also of his picture, from a photograph contributed by Scott Hann from his collection, and of the quote above, from the Philadelphia Inquirer of 17 August 1897.
More on the Web
See more about Wilson's murder and its aftermath in a fine article (2018) by Robert Wilhelm at Murder by Gaslight.
Birth
09/11/1842; Rutland, MA
Death
08/16/1897; Philadelphia, PA; burial in Old Spencer Cemetery, Spencer, MA
1 State of New York, Adjutant-General, Annual Report of the Adjutant General of the State of New York [year]: Registers of the [units], 43 Volumes, Albany: James B. Lyon, State Printer, 1893-1905, For the Year 1902, Ser. No. 33, p. 1066 [AotW citation 7146]