Note 176 — Chapter XXVII

Captain Harrison Wilson, in the war of 1812, was an ensign in Captain James Craig’s company of frontier riflemen. Fourth Regiment. His father, Alexander, was a member of the first Legislature of Illinois Territory, and drafted with his own hand the first code of English-speaking law for that territory. Gen. James H. Wilson, of Wilmington, Del., who represented the U.S. Army at King Edward’s coronation, and Col. Bluford Wilson, of Springfield, Ill., late Solicitor of the U.S. Treasury, are sons of Capt. Harrison Wilson, who died in 1853. He fought by the side of Jefferson Davis against Black Hawk at the battle of the Bad Axe, while his son, Gen. James H. Wilson, captured the President of the Southern Confederacy in the Civil War. Another coincidence must be noticed: Maj.-Gen. John A. McClernand was a private in Capt. Harrison Wilson’s company, and during the recent war with Spain Lt.-Col. Edward J. McClernand, son of Gen. McClernand, was adjutant to Gen. J.H. Wilson while the latter occupied Cuba.