Martin H. Wilson

Name: Martin H. Wilson Company: B Discharged for disability.
Birth Date: about 1843 Place: Illinois	Mustered In Date: January 17, 1862 Rank: Private Age: 18 Residence prior to military service: Illinois; Chatfield, Fillmore County, Minnesota Vocation prior to military service: Student
Death Date: after 1909	Mustered Out Date: December 1, 1863 Rank: Private Age: 19-20 Residence following military service: Walnut Lake, Faribault County, Minnesota

Martin H. Wilson Biography and Civil War Narrative

Martin H. Wilson was born in Illinois about 1843 to Charles (born about 1811 in Connecticut) and Susannah (born about 1818 in New York) Wilson. In 1860 Charles was a Hotel Keeper in Chatfield, Fillmore County, Minnesota. Also in the household were Martin's older brother (Ole? age 21; a Surveyor) and his older sister Helen M. (age 19), as well as two younger sisters: Elizabeth (age 7) and Harriet (age 3).

On January 17, 1862, 18-year-old Martin enlisted in Company B of the 5th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment. That spring the Company was sent to Fort Ridgely for garrison duty.

Martin Wilson was one of the privates who accompanied Captain Marsh in response to the Yellow Medicine Agency massacre on August 18, 1862. In his report, Sergeant John F. Bishop lists "Private M. H. Wilson" as one of the "survivors in the party" who were attacked by Indians at the Redwood ferry crossing [Minnesota in the Civil and Indian Wars, Vol. II, p. 170]. Wilson then participated in defending Fort Ridgely on August 20-22.

In November 1862, Wilson and Company B left Fort Ridgely. They joined the rest of the 5th Minnesota Regiment near Oxford, Mississippi on December 12. After some minor engagements in early 1863, the 5th Minnesota participated in the Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, from May 18 to July 4. In October 1863 the Regiment participated in an expedition to Canton, Mississippi, and in November they moved to LaGrange, Tennessee. Private Wilson was discharged for disability on December 1, 1863.

Wilson returned to Minnesota, and in 1870 the U.S. Census shows him living with his parents in Walnut Lake, Faribault County, Minnesota, where his father worked as a farmer.

The photo (above) was published in a group of pictures included in Oscar Wall's Recollections of the Sioux Massacre on page 230. The book, published in 1909, describes the subjects of the photos as "the only known living members of Company B, Fifth Minnesota Infantry Volunteers, who were defenders of Fort Ridgely during the Sioux Massacre."

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