Civil War Military Service of the
“Uncles” of John Raymond Wilde

CHARLES MAHLON BLAKER: Enlisted as a Private at Featherstone, Minn., on February 6, 1865, in Company I, 1st Regiment, Minnesota Heavy Artillery; mustered in on Feb. 11, 1865; mustered out on Sept. 27, 1865.

HENRY C. BLAKER: Enlisted as a Private on Sept. 3, 1861, in Company H, 11th Regiment, Wisconsin Infantry; discharged in 1864 and re-enlisted as a veteran volunteer; promoted to Corporal; wounded at Fort Blakely on Apr. 9, 1865; mustered out at Mobile, Ala., on July 22, 1865.

WILLIAM H. BLAKER: Enlisted as a Private in Company D, 10th Regiment, Minnesota Infantry; mustered in on Feb. 27, 1864; mustered out on Aug. 19, 1865.

HARLOW LEANDER MATTESON: Enlisted as a Private at Troy, N.Y., on July 23, 1862, in Company A, 125th Regiment, New York Infantry; mustered in at Troy on Aug. 27, 1862; surrendered (with his regiment) at Harper’s Ferry, W. Va., on Sept. 15, 1862; paroled at Harper’s Ferry on September 16, 1862; exchanged at Camp Douglas in Chicago, Ill., on Nov. 22, 1862; discharged for disability at Washington, D.C., on Jan. 4, 1863.

EDWARD PAYSON TAYLOR: Commissioned on Dec. 10, 1863, as Captain, Company D, 2nd Regiment, Arkansas Infantry (African Descent); designation of the regiment changed on Mar. 11, 1864, to 54th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry; commissioned on Mar. 8, 1865, as Assistant Quartermaster of Volunteers, with rank of Captain, and assigned to the 7th Corps (Department of Arkansas); reassigned as Post Quartermaster at Mobile, Ala.; mustered out on Dec. 8, 1865. Taylor attended Western Reserve College in Hudson, O., and Illinois College in Jacksonville, Ill. In 1861 he entered Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., graduating from that institution in 1862 (with a Bachelor of Arts degree). The 1890 Catalogue of Phi Alpha Society of Illinois College reports that “Mr. Taylor always took great interest in public questions and devoted most of his college vacations to making speeches in favor of the maintenance of the Union.” It also reports that “Immediately after graduation he was commissioned a captain in the 2d Arkansas regiment. He was soon made division quartermaster and as such served on the staffs of Generals E. A. Carr, A. J. Steele and [Edward R. S.] Canby. He was regarded as a most efficient quartermaster and went through many hard campaigns in Arkansas.”



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