<p style="text-align:center"><strong>ORLANDO B. WILLCOX</strong></p><p style="text-align:center"><strong>No. 1338 · Class of 1847</strong></p><p style="text-align:center"><strong>Died May 10, 1907, at Cobourg, Canada, aged 84 years.</strong></p><p style="text-align:center"><strong>Interred at National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia.</strong></p><p>Major-General Orlando B. Willcox, United States Army retired, an Officer of the Mexican and Seminole Wars, and one of the very few surviving Corps Commanders of the great Civil War, died at his summer home in Cobourg, Ont. He was a native of Detroit, Mich., born there in 1823, and that city and state have always been proud of his long and splendid record as an Officer in the Army since he entered it as a West Point cadet, a period of nearly sixty-five years. Washington has also been familiar with the gallant old veteran for much of that long period, for he first came here in 1843 to seek his commission as cadet, which he received in person from President John Tyler. He was stationed for a number of years at Fort Washington, and was at that time on intimate terms with many of the old families of Washington and Alexandria, and enjoyed the acquaintance and friendship, among others of Colonel John Augustine Washington, the last of the family to own Mt. Vernon. General Willcox commanded the First Michigan Volunteers in the Civil War, and that regiment was the first to come from across the Alleghenies to the capital. He was in command of the regiment at the time of the advance into Virginia by the occupation of Alexandria, and he was Military Governor of the city in April 1861. At the close of the Civil War he was for a time in command of the District of Columbia.</p><p>On his retirement, in 1886, he was made Commander of the National Soldiers' Home here, and on the completion of his service in that capacity, established and had since maintained his residence here, although always regarding Detroit with affection as his "home".</p><p>General Willcox was descended of good revolutionary Connecticut stock, and is succeeded in the army line by a son, Major Elon Farnsworth Willcox, who was born in Detroit while his father was campaigning against the Seminoles in the Everglades.</p><p>At West Point General Willcox was in the class with Major-General Ambrose E. Burnside, Generals Griffin, Ayres, Gibbon and Fry of the Union Army, and Generals Harry Heth, A. P. Hill and Bee of the Confederate Army�the latter being slain at the time General Willcox's Division occupied the stubbornly defended city of Petersburg before which it had been campaigning for many months. He was in the same West Point "Corps" as General Ulysses S. Grant, General Stonewall Jackson and General George B. McClellan, three of the most celebrated Commanders of the Civil War, and was a personal friend of all of them.</p><p>The class graduated during the Mexican War, and had as its patroness Mrs. Winfield Scott. Promptly as possible the young officers were rushed to the lands of the Montezumas, and there young Willcox saw his first active service. He was next on duty on the western plains, and at St. Louis. While an officer there he was groomsman at the wedding of General Winfield Scott Hancock.</p><p>Willcox played an important part at the time of the Anthony Burns riots in Boston, where he was stationed for several years, and from which city he proceeded to the last of the many and long Seminole Wars in Florida.</p><p>Soon after the close of that contest he resigned his commission as First Lieutenant of the Fourth Artillery, and for several years practiced law at his old home in Detroit. The dawn of the Civil War found him residing there and as he had made an excellent record in the service he was promptly commissioned by Governor Austin Blair to be Colonel of the celebrated First Michigan Infantry.</p><p>General Willcox, severely wounded and taken prisoner after his gallant advance at first Bull Run, was afterwards for thirteen months a prisoner of War in many southern prisons and jails, making the tour of the south in this manner, during a large part of that time being held as a hostage to be shot in case the Washington government executed any of the Confederate so-called "Privateers." General Michael Corcoran and himself were chosen as prisoners of highest rank for this distressing finale which both awaited with true fortitude. Colonel Willcox was finally exchanged, however, and on his release was commissioned Brigadier-General, and soon afterward was engaged once more for the Union cause at Antietam, South Mountain and other important battles. Following the fortunes of his old classmate, General Burnside, he led a Division in the Fredericksburg campaign and for a time was in command of Burnside's Army Corps.</p><p>General Willcox was next in command at Indianapolis where he rendered important services to the Government in the repelling of the Morgan raid, and in defeating the operations of the Knights of the Golden Circle and other bodies of Confederate sympathizers, then very numerous in southern Indiana, Illinois and Ohio.</p><p>Then he returned to the Army of the Potomac, and as a Division Commander in the advance upon Richmond and the long siege at Petersburg he earned his greatest and most lasting fame. "Willcox's Division" will long be remembered by survivors of both Armies for its arduous and gallant work during that year before the fall of Petersburg and of the Confederacy.</p><p>For a short time after the close of the War General Willcox was in command in Washington, and afterward, in early reconstruction days, at Lynchburg. He was mustered out in January 1866, and for some time resided at his old Detroit home. In October of that year he was commissioned Colonel of the Twenty-ninth Infantry, which he long commanded, its scene of activities being mainly in Arizona and the Southwest. In 1886 he was made a Brigadier-General of the Regular Army, and soon afterward retired.</p><p>General Willcox was a democrat in politics and was a strong supporter of Stephen A. Douglas during his residence in Michigan as a civilian just before the War. He continued a democrat all his life, and although never active in political affairs, was strongly urged for the nomination for governor of his state.</p><p>The deceased was twice married, first to a daughter of the late Chancellor Elon Farnsworth of Michigan, and after her death during his Army service in the Southwest, to the present Mrs. Willcox, who has long been known in Washington.</p><p>The deceased was a member of the Army and Navy Club, the Loyal Legion and the Aztec Club. He was also an ex-president of the Michigan State Association, which has among its membership a number of the men who served in his old First Michigan, notably General Ira C. Abbott, who as a Captain, led the remnant of the First Michigan off the field of Bull Run, and afterward rose to command the three years' First Michigan. He was a gentleman of very gracious and affable manners a true soldier and popular with officers and men alike. With his death passed away one of the few noteworthy survivors of the eminent officers of the great Rebellion.</p><p>The remains were buried in the National Cemetery at Arlington, Virginia. The services were military, and were under charge of the War Department. The honorary pallbearers were: Major-General G. L. Gillespie, Brigadier-General Theodore Schwan, Brigadier-General Rufus Saxton, Brigadier-General F. G. Smith, Brigadier-General John G. Butler, Brigadier-General E. D. Dimmick and Major-General H. C. Merriam. Non-commissioned officers served as active pallbearers.</p><p>The remains were accompanied by Mrs. Willcox; a son, Orlando B. Willcox, Jr.; a stepson, Dr. H. Wyeth, and other members of the family. Representatives of the Loyal Legion, Michigan State Association, Society of the American Revolution; Aztec Club, and personal friends in military and civil life were present.</p><p>Major Elon F. Willcox, U.S.A., retired, is a son of General Willcox.�Washington Evening Star.</p><p>The following reminiscences, also from the Star, of the "Early Days of the Civil War", "Story of the Capture of Alexandria, Va.", "Proclamation upon taking Possession of the city", the "Death of Colonel Ellsworth", all as related by General Willcox, will be read with much interest.</p><p>The octogenarian veteran Major-General Willcox, United States Army, retired just deceased at Cobourg, Ontario, commanded the first Union troops that reached Washington from across the Alleghenies at the dawn of the Civil War, and also commanded the first troops that crossed the Potomac into Virginia. His regiment occupied the city of Alexandria for the Federal Government May 26, 1861.</p><p>The Proclamation by which he assumed military authority is one of the most interesting documents of the early days of the War, issued as it was, in the first city south of the Potomac occupied by federal troops. It read:</p><blockquote><p>"PROCLAMATION! "Headquarters, Alexandria, Va., May 26, 1861. "Special Orders No. 1. "Captain Wittelsey, First Michigan Infantry, is detailed for duty as Provost-Marshal of this city and such parts of the vicinity as may come within the range of outposts. He will report for duty immediately to the Commanding Officer until further orders. "Company H is detailed as city police guard under command of the Provost-Marshal. The headquarters of the police will be the Marshall House. "By order of "COLONEL O. B. WILLCOX. "J. D. FAIRBANKS, Adjutant."</p></blockquote><p>Headquarters Alexandria, May 26, 1861. "Order No. 2. "The undersigned assumes command of the Union forces in and about Alexandria from the 24th instant. "The peace of the city will be preserved unless attacked by the enemy, when the consequences will rest upon themselves. Private property will be respected and protected by the officers and men of the whole command. "Peaceable citizens will be held inviolate in the persons of themselves, their families and servants. "All disorders will be promptly stopped and offenders arrested and punished. "In ordinary cases the city police will not be interfered with in the performance of their duty, day or night. The police guard will form the military police of the city, and the Provost Marshal may be applied to by citizens for protection or redress of grievances from soldiers. "Citizens will apply to the Provost Marshal for passes, which he will grant at his discretion, under orders received from the commanding officer. "By order of "COLONEL O. B. WILLCOX. "J. D. FAIRBANKS, Adjutant."</p><p>This proclamation was "issued" the day of the capture of the city, but its publication was attended by some difficulties. General Willcox, then a Colonel, sent it to the publisher of the old Alexandria Gazette, Mr. Snowdon, one of the family which has owned it for generations, and asked its insertion. The paper made its appearance in the evening, as it had done from the time of Burgoyne, but did not contain the proclamation. He at once sent an officer to ascertain the cause of its suppression. The publisher said he did not consider it sound policy to print the proclamation in his columns. The paper was seized, but printers were not available until two privates in the First Michigan Regiment, Galloway of Detroit and O'Donnell of Jackson, volunteered their services, and with material found in the office succeeded in issuing the proclamation in handbill form. To it they attached the legend, Galloway & O'Donnell, Printers First Michigan Volunteers." One of these young men was James O'Donnell, long an efficient member of Congress.</p><p>The other Alexandria paper, the Sentinel, stopped publication of its own accord. It had announced in the last issue before the taking of the city:</p><blockquote><p>"We are able to meet the foe, eye to eye, front to front, column to column, and chase them back from our soil. We shall gloriously triumph over them."</p></blockquote><p>General Willcox's own story of the occupation of Alexandria will doubtless be read with keen interest by many old citizens of Washington and her sister city. He always entertained the warmest regard for many whom he met in both cities. In his story of the occupation he says:</p><p>"The jurisdiction of the Federal Government extends over the Potomac river. There is no boundary line of demarkation in mid-stream. Therefore the First Michigan in its advance on ancient Alexandria did not reach the soil of the Old Dominion until it came to the Virginia end of the Long Bridge. As the regiment was crossing all minds were full. This was for us the actual beginning of the long, bitter story of the Civil War. The 'invasion' was made cheerfully enough. The officers and men were full of enthusiasm and zeal, conscious that their cause was just and determined that their duty should be done. But looking back over the long retrospect of more than forty years I cannot help recalling the grim fate that awaited so many of the bright, brave boys of the first regiment that ever came under my command. Many of them fell on the soil of the state which we were that dark night 'invading.' Others died in hospitals and noisome prisons. Some of them still sleep in Old Virginia. A handful of the veterans yet survive, to whom their Colonel's hat is off with due pride mingled with tender remembrance!</p><p>"At the Virginia end of the Long Bridge Colonel Charles P. Stone was stationed with a battalion of District of Columbia guards, which greeted us in passing. This officer afterwards gained fame at Ball's Bluff and was subsequently a distinguished Pasha in the Army of the Egyptian Khedive.</p><p>"Several regiments had already crossed and right-wheeled up to Arlington Heights, where General Sanford commanded. We turned down to the left, marching as far as Halfway creek toward Alexandria, which was then considered 'the danger point' most eminently threatening our Capital. There were other 'war clouds,' Manassas, Culpeper, Harper's Ferry, Fredericksburg etc., but these were all more remote.</p><p>"Colonel Butterworth of the Twelfth New York marched his regiment with us as far as Halfway creek, but as we found no hostile forces there to oppose us he turned back for Arlington, his proper destination. At Halfway Creek we had to wait for Colonel Ellsworth's steamer on the Potomac whose signal we looked for to renew our route. The plan had been for our two commands to advance�one by land and one by water�and enter Alexandria simultaneously, in order to insure its capture, strike for the Orange and Alexandria railway depot and break up the track as far out as necessary in order to destroy railroad communication with Manassas, where the Confederates had gathered a formidable force. But as the steamer hove in sight and moved right on and much faster than our legs could carry us, the 'simultaneous' part of the business collapsed.</p><p>"It was imperative that Ellsworth should 'slow up', instead of which my gallant young friend impatiently paddled ahead, landing at the old King Street wharf, where, leaving Lieut.-Colonel Farnham in command of the Regiment, he marched up the street with one company�not to the railroad depot, but to the Marshall House Confederate flag, in the capture of which both he and Jackson, the owner of the hotel, lost their lives. This was not the only contretemps, for Commander S. C. Rowan of our Navy, who was lying off Alexandria with the gunboat Pawnee, on seeing a steamer load of troops coming down, had sent ashore and demanded the surrender of the city�'or he would lay the town in ashes'.</p><p>"The mayor of the city, my good old friend, Lewis Mackenzie, received the summons, shrewdly gained two or three hours delay and thereby time for a lot of officers and stores to be gotten off for Manassas by rail. I could hear the locomotives puffing out and in as the First Michigan with the cavalry and artillery, plodded along the road�Stoneman ahead, confronting a troop of Confederate horse that soon spied us and slowly fell back, keeping a safe distance off.</p><p>"Without firing a shot except at long range my command entered the city. By good luck I had taken the lead, with the guide Owen and an advance guard, while Captain Stoneman swung around to the rear of the town. On approaching King Street Owen reported a troop of Confederate Cavalry. We halted and I ordered up the two field pieces, wheeled one of them around the corner toward the troops, and, dashing up to them, I shouted: 'Surrender, or I'll blow you to h�!' I hope the 'recording angel' wiped out the bad words, although I doubt it; why should she if a female of spirit? I think it was the only cuss word I exploded during the War.</p><p>"The secession troop seemed paralyzed. Most of them were in the saddle, while others stood stock-still with one foot in the stirrup, but the Captain rode forward, saluted and tendered me his sword. 'Your name sir,' I demanded. 'Captain Ball.' 'Ball,' I repeated to myself, 'a family connection of George Washington's now in rebellion!' I treated him as courteously as I could, bidding him keep his sword, but turning him and his troop into the old Alexandria 'pen', which stood nearby for I had no time to spare at the moment. My orders were for the Orange and Alexandria depot.</p><p>"And yet I was detained. A soldier came running out from the Marshall House with the shocking news that Colonel Ellsworth was killed. One company that he had brought with him was left standing, waiting orders, and this company I placed in charge of the slave pen and Captain Ball's people. I had no time now for further investigation on our way to the depot.</p><p>"I deeply mourned the loss of such a gallant soldier and trusted friend as was Colonel Ellsworth. He had bright prospects of good services to his country and glory to himself. But how could he have rushed to such a fate or fallen into such a trap? The secret of his eager haste to reach Alexandria was to be the first to secure a 'rebel flag,' and that before my troops could arrive on the spot, for the 'flag question had been discussed among the boys of both regiments in Washington.</p><p>"Needless to say, the news of Ellsworth's tragic fate fell on the north with a shock scarcely less than was the subsequent news of our disaster at Bull Run. My telegram to General Mansfield 'Alexandria is ours, but Ellsworth is killed,' spread like wildfire but in the excitement of the occasion my own small part in taking of the first city south of the Potomac very naturally was overlooked, except in my native state.</p><p>"We broke up the railroad depot and tracks and burned a couple of small bridges. We advanced as far as Cloud's Mills, beyond which we found the retreating enemy doing the same thing. I left a strong guard with cavalry outposts at the mills, and rode back to King Street and down to the wharf, followed through the now peaceful city by a single orderly. And fearing lest the Zouaves might break out and sack the city in revenge for the loss of their leader, I ordered Lieutenant-Colonel Farnham, commanding, to march the regiment out to a field nearby and there wait my visit to inspect them. But to my utter surprise little or no indignation was expressed, much less threats. And some of the men complained of too much fancy drill. Sure enough, on inspecting the ranks I found that some of the zouaves scarcely knew how to load and fire. Perhaps the fault lay with the Company Officers.</p><blockquote><p>"On proceeding uptown again I shook hands with his honor, the Mayor, Lewis Mackenzie, an old friend, who told me of 'the truce', as he called it, with Lieutenant Rowan, and as the hour named had not expired, he claimed that 'neither hostilities nor military possession could fairly be the thing'. By the way it must be mentioned that neither Captain Ball nor General Bonham, commanding the Confederate Department of Alexandria, nor General Lee, commanding the Confederate Army, made any such claim. I replied to the mayor: 'I cannot recognize your right to bind the military, but you may be assured that nothing shall be done by myself further than to make provision for the security of life and property in a city where I have already so many friends and acquaintances. And how are the Masons, the Fairfaxes, Bonhams, and other old friends? Besides my dear sir, we have restored you and your people to the Union.' And in my secret thoughts, I believed the old gentleman, who was a rich merchant, was really glad of it.</p></blockquote><blockquote><p>"However that may be, he had aforetime made no little lucre by Uncle Sam's troops at Fort Washington below, and now had on hand some 'bad debts' contracted with Confederate Officers, who had flocked in from Manassas. That there had been many of the latter visitors, I felt assured from the reports of our spies and from the frequent puffs of locomotives running in and out of town during our morning march. And sure enough, as it subsequently became known, not only officers but military supplies and troops, under command of Colonel Terrell, were rushed out. He had ordered out likewise what organized forces there were under Captains Powell and Ball, but the latter was not quick enough, and ended by getting into the 'pen.' On revisiting this slave pen or auction house I found it a decent-enough, substantial-looking building, now guarded by our Michigan fellows. There was kept the auctioneer's description book of slaves received and sold and their owners names. Prices ranged from $50 upward.</p></blockquote><blockquote><p>"Some of my officers reported that they had found several slaves, including a man, a 'likely looking $1,800 girl' and a boy, in durance vile and waiting either to be sold or to be taken away by their respective masters or mistresses. My men set all three prisoners free. On the appearance of a well-dressed gentleman to 'claim his property', the negro man whom he grabbed by the coat collar and attempted to take with him, resisted, and the master was hustled off alone amid the jeers of the Michigan men. That slave took free service and became Company cook in Company C. After the War he went to Michigan with Captain Butterworth, at whose home he finally died.</p></blockquote><blockquote><p>"The first thing to do in order to secure peace and tranquility was to appoint a Provost-Marshal, and I named Captain Devilo Hubbard. One of his orders was in case of doubt concerning the peaceful intentions of any citizen to tender him the 'oath of allegiance,' and, if the party declined, to report the case to me. And what was my amusement, in one case at least, to find that the zealous Provost, not knowing himself exactly the terms of the required oath, made certain citizens of Virginia swear to 'bear true allegiance to and obey the orders of the Governor of Michigan!' in the language of the Captain's own commission.</p></blockquote><blockquote><p>"Doubtless there still lingered some Confederate officers in the city in disguise. I do not know how many troops there had been at Alexandria but May 7th there were 500 under Colonel Taylor.</p></blockquote><blockquote><p>"Nine years had passed since, as a Lieutenant of Artillery, stationed at Fort Washington, opposite Mt. Vernon, I made frequent visits at Alexandria and formed many pleasant acquaintances. To some of these I had given written protection of their persons and property. With one exception�the Mason family which I had known at Detroit, and which had furnished two governors of Michigan�they rather gave me the cold shoulder. But public tranquility being the main object, I quickly issued a sort of proclamation of peace, as I thought it."</p></blockquote><p style="text-align:right">� Washington Evening Star</p><p style="text-align:center"><a href="https://usmalibrary.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/aogreunion/id/8719">Annual Report, June 13, 1907, pp. 102�111 · U.S. Military Academy Library</a></p>