The Red Book of Michigan; A Civil, Military and Biographical History

WILCOX, ORLANDO B. He was born in Detroit, Michigan, about the year 1826; and graduated at the West Point Academy in 1846. He took an active part in the war with Mexico, as a Lieutenant of Artillery, and remained in the United States service until about 1854, when he resigned and entered upon the practice of law, to the study of which, in a quiet way, he had previously devoted some attention. Prior to the Rebellion he took a lively interest in organizing the Militia of Michigan, and when hostilities commenced, he offered his sword to the State and was appointed Colonel of the First Infantry, and his regiment was the first to report for service at Washington from the West. He was in command at Alexandria just before the battle of Bull Run, and participated in that battle, in which he was wounded and taken prisoner, and as such remained in Richmond about fifteen months. When General Lorenzo Thomas was negotiating with the Confederate officer Robert Ould, for the exchange of prisoners, he made a special request in behalf of Colonel Wilcox, to which, in a day or two, the Confederate assented. He soon afterwards returned to the army and participated in many of the engagements in Virginia, and was subsequently promoted to the rank of Brevet Brigadier and Brevet Major-General of Volunteers, for gallant and meritorious services at Spottsylvania and Petersburg. He was mustered out in 1866 and appointed an Assessor of Internal Revenue at Detroit, but again re-appointed in the array; and at the present writing, 1870, he is Colonel of the Twelfth United States Infantry, and stationed on Angel Island, Bay of San Francisco, California. As an author he published in 1856, "Shoepack Recollections—A Way-side Glimpse of American Life," and in 1857, another work entitled "Foca, an Army Memoir, by Major March."