Civil War General, Ingenious Manufacturer Wilder Called Cameron Hill Home For Many Years

A Civil War general who was also an ingenious manufacturer called Cameron Hill home for many years and once served as mayor of Chattanooga.

John Thomas Wilder grew up in the Catskill Mountains of New York as a descendant of two Revolutionary War soldiers and one who fought in the War of 1812. Wilder went west to Columbus, Ohio, when he was 19 and worked as a draftsman, then was an apprentice millwright at a foundry.

He later settled in Greensburg, Ind., where he married Martha Jane Stewart on May 18, 1858, and had a large family.

There he set up a foundry of his own, while inventing and patenting several hydraulic machines and a unique water wheel. He built mills and hydraulic works in a large area.

When the Civil War broke out Wilder organized a light artillery company and provided it with two six-pounder cannons produced at his foundry. He also made sure that the men were equipped with the new Spencer repeating rifles, at first having each man commit to buying their own until the government finally covered the cost.

At one point in Kentucky, Wilder's unit with 4,000 men became surrounded by a much larger Confederate army. He personally entered enemy lines under a flag of truce and concluded that the unit should surrender. He was held captive for two months before being exchanged.

In the Tullahoma campaign in Tennessee, his fast-moving troops became known as the "Lightning Brigade." Wilder seized Hoover's Gap and continued to hold it despite orders to pull back. Afterward, he was one of the principal commanders in the campaign to take Chattanooga from General Braxton Bragg. It was Aug. 21, 1863, when Wilder's forces arrived at Stringer's Ridge and began lobbing shells into the town. Confederate artillery was soon dragged to the top of Cameron Hill to make reply. By Sept. 9, the Confederate troops had withdrawn from Chattanooga and Wilder's troops were able to ferry themselves across the river, while vying for the honor of who would get to erect the first Union flag. Wilder and his men then marched triumphantly up Market Street while a band played "Yankee Doodle Went To Town." 

Wilder played a pivitol role at the Battle of Chickamauga, defending the crossing of West Chickamauga Creek at Alexander's Bridge. Equipped with the superior Spencers, Wilder's unit held and launched a counterattack on the second day of the battle. Wilder Tower was erected at Chickamauga Battlefield in his honor. General Wilder suffered from dysentery late in the war and resigned from the Army in October 1864.  

Wilder, like many enterprising Union officers, went South after the war. He was first at Rockwood, Tn., where he and Capt. H.S. Chamberlain purchased a large tract. Wilder operated the first two blast furnaces in the South at his Roane Iron Company. The town was named after W.O. Rockwood, who was the president of the Roane Iron Company. W.O. Rockwood in 1871 was in Chattanooga living on Cameron Hill, as was General Wilder, who had started a Roane Iron Works at Tannery Flats below Cameron Hill in 1867. Wilder also set up in Chattanooga in 1870 a firm to manufacture rails for the  railroads at the site of the old rolling mill of the Federal Army. This operated for several years until that market was about used up. The Roane Iron Works in its heyday supplied jobs for 225 workers. The plant at Rockwood operated until it closed during the Depression.

General Wilder was active in civic affairs and was elected mayor in 1871. However, he was often unable to attend meetings because of the press of business and he resigned after several months. Wilder ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1876. He was the Chattanooga postmaster from 1877 to 1882.

It was said of General Wilder: "He has talked, written, worked, traveled, and spent thousands of dollars to make the country known, and has been instrumental in bringing several million dollars into that section of the state (East Tennessee), and the people who had moved into it upon his representations are prosperous. He has lived many years among a people whom he once fought with all his dash and vim, and has not yet received one uncivil or unkind word from any man in the South, and what is more, he has host of friends among them. He has never held back from helping to build up the town or the country."

General Wilder in July 1886 made plans to leave Chattanooga and he sold his fine home at 113 (later 213 and still later 1113) East Terrace to Harvey Smith Ladew, a wealthy New Yorker who was a leader in the tanning business. Ladew had joined with another tanner, Daniel B. Fayerweather, to form Fayerweather & Ladew. That firm set up a plant at Tannery Flats just down from Cameron Hill on the river side.

The sale was for $15,000, which was a princely sum for those days. However, the home featured a ballroom on the third floor, a wine cellar, a walk-in safe, mahogany paneling, marble bathroom fixtures and 12-inch-thick brick walls. It was at the site of the old William Crutchfield farm before the Civil War.

H.S. Ladew was described "as a gentleman of wealth, who has liberal investments in the city; and his residence here for a considerable portion of the year portends much for the growth of the city. It is hoped that by making Chattanooga a temporary home, he will eventually conclude to permanently locate here." His brother, Joseph Harvey Ledew, lived at the former Wilder home for a portion of 1888 while overseeing the plant. 

Harvey Smith Ladew had planned to reside on Cameron Hill in the winter months. However, he died in 1888 and the house stood vacant for many years. It was finally acquired by T.H. Lasley, who lived there for over half a century.  

General Wilder went from Chattanooga to Johnson City, Tn., where he developed the industrial suburb of Carnegie and set up plants to produce iron and furnish equipment to the railroads. He built the 166-room Cloudland Hotel near the top of Roan Mountain that was reached by a narrow gauge railroad. He moved on to Knoxville in 1897 after being appointed by President William McKinley as a federal pension agent.

He was a commissioner of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. In 1902, he was part of a delegation to New York to seek funding for a Chattanooga library. The Carnegie Library was built on Georgia Avenue after Andrew Carnegie supplied $50,000. 

Martha Stewart Wilder died in 1892. In 1904, Wilder took Dora Lee as his second wife. General Wilder was on vacation at Jacksonville, Fla., when he died at age 87. He is buried at Forest Hills Cemetery in St. Elmo with his first wife.

Two of the homes he lived in have been preserved. They are the General John T. Wilder House in Knoxville and the John T. Wilder House at Roan Mountain.

Sadly, the home he occupied on a perch of Cameron Hill was torn down.