Picture courtesy of Jim Kuntz

James H. Wilson, American Army Officer, Engineer, and Author, was born in 1837 on his family's farm about a mile south of here. He attended Shawneetown schools, McKendree College, and the United States Military Academy. In the spring of 1864, during the Civil War, he commanded Sheridan's Third Cavalry Division. In the spring of 1865, as Brevet Major General, Chief of Cavalry, Military Division of the Mississippi, Wilson led a month-long mounted campaign through Alabama, capping his exploits by surmounting the fortifications at Selma. Detachments under his command captured Jefferson Davis. Wilson also served in the Spanish-American War and the Boxer Rebellion. He died in 1925.

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