Wool, John Ellis

Life Span
to
Full name
John Ellis Wool
Place of Birth
Burial Place
Birth Date Certainty
Disputed
Death Date Certainty
Exact
Gender
Male
Race
White
Sectional choice
North
Origins
Free State
Family
Sarah Moulton (wife, 1810)
Occupation
Military
Attorney or Judge
Military
US military (Pre-Civil War)
Union Army

John Ellis Wool (American National Bibliography)

Scholarship
At the beginning of 1861 Wool was appointed one of New York's representatives to the abortive Peace Conference, and as a northern Democrat, he announced his intention to be "an independent member" of the conference "with an uncompromising determination to preserve the Union" and to avert the outbreak of the Civil War. The war came anyway, and Wool (as the fourth-ranking officer in the army and junior in years of service only to Scott) immediately moved the headquarters of the Department of the East from Troy to New York City, where he assumed responsibility for mobilization, war contracts, and supplies.

Wool's burst of activity was based on his assumption that he was the logical candidate for active command of the Federal army in the war. However, on 1 May 1861 Wool was reprimanded by Secretary of War Simon Cameron for exceeding his responsibilities, and it became quickly evident that Wool would be given no major field command.
Allen C. Guelzo, "Wool, John Ellis," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/04/04-01074.html.
Chicago Style Entry Link
Bauer, K. Jack. "General John E. Wool's Memoranda of the Battle of Buena Vista." Southwestern Historical Quarterly 77, no. 1 (1973): 111-123. view record
How to Cite This Page: "Wool, John Ellis," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/12825.