John Thomas Wilder was a Union general in the Civil War best known for commanding the innovative “Lightning Brigade” and afterwards as one of a group of key northerners who came to Chattanooga to lead its industrial recovery. He also served as the city’s mayor.
Born Jan. 31, 1830, in Hunter’s Village in New York’s Catskill Mountains, he left home at age 19 determined to make it on his own and settled in Greensburg, Indiana, where he established a profitable foundry and became an expert in hydraulics.
In 1861, the governor of Indiana commissioned Wilder as a lieutenant colonel of the 17th Indiana Infantry. Wilder became one of the first to recognize the advantage of the Spencer repeating rifle, which could fire seven rounds without reloading, a significant improvement over standard muzzle-loading rifles of the time, which managed only two to three shots per minute.
He also learned that his immobile infantry was unable to keep pace with Confederate cavalry on horseback and refitted his unit as mounted infantry. Hence the name, Lightning Brigade. Commanding troops in the Army of the Cumberland, he gained notice at Munfordville, Kentucky, in September 1862, where he held off superior Confederate forces before surrendering under siege and being promptly exchanged.
In June 1863, during the Tullahoma campaign, Wilder’s Lightning Brigade seized and held Hoover’s Gap, a crucial mountain pass in Middle Tennessee’s Highland Rim, stunning Confederate commanders and helping force Braxton Bragg to retreat. Wilder’s troops played an important role in diversionary operations and bombardments that helped the Union capture Chattanooga in the summer of 1863.