1823 - 1907and staff in the field, Army of the Potomac
Orlando Willcox graduated from West Point in 1847, fought in the Mexican American War and the Seminole War, and resigned from the army in 1857 to practice law in Detroit. In May 1861, he was appointed colonel of the First Michigan Regiment, which participated in some of the earliest campaigns of the Civil War, including the capture of Alexandria and the Battle of Bull Run, where he was taken prisoner. Willcox was exchanged in the summer of 1862 and promoted to the rank of brigadier general of volunteers. He returned to battle as part of Burnside's army, fighting at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and in the final campaigns at Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg. After the war, Willcox remained with the army for the next twenty-one years. This portrait of Willcox and his staff was probably made soon after the Michigan regiment arrived in Washington.
Mathew Brady Studio
Albumen silver print (stereo view), ca. 1861
8.4 x 18.1 cm. (3 5/16 x 7 1/8 in.)
Don Parisi