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GENERAL EDWARD AUGUSTUS WILD, USA
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VITAL STATISTICS
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BORN: 1825 in Brookline, MA.
DIED: 1891 in Medellín, COLOMBIA.
CAMPAIGNS: First Bull Run, Peninsula, Seven Pines, and South Mountain.
HIGHEST RANK ACHIEVED: Brigadier General (and Physician).
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BIOGRAPHY
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| Edward Augustus Wild was born on November 25, 1825, in Brookline, Massachusetts. After graduating from Harvard in 1844, he studied medicine at Jefferson Medical College and in Paris, France. During the Crimean War, Wild was a medical officer in the Turkish Army. After the war, he returned to Massachusetts and set up a medical practice until the Civil War began. Wild chose to serve in field duty, and became captain of a company in May of 1861. His regiment fought at the First Battle of Bull Run, suffering only one casualty, but Wild was seriously wounded at Seven Pines in 1862. He mustered out with his regiment in July of 1862, then reentered the service in August in another regiment. He led the 35th Massachusetts at South Mountain, where his left arm was removed. Promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on April 24, 1863, he took time off to recover. Wild was an enthusiastic abolitionist, and a proponent of the enlistment of African American soldiers. When he returned to duty, he recruited freedmen and former slaves, and organized "Wild's African Brigade" in June of 1863 in New Berne, North Carolina. The unit served in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, then in southeastern Virginia, where Wild commanded all black troops. Wild's brigade served in the XVIII Corps, and later became part of the occupation force in Richmond, Virginia when the war ended. Wild left the service in January of 1866, then became involved in silver mining. He ran a mine in Nevada, then traveled to South America for business purposes. Wild died in Medellín, Colombia, on August 28, 1891. |
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