After the war with Mexico ended, Wilcox was promoted to first lieutenant on August 24, 1851.[1] In the autumn of 1852, Wilcox was ordered back to West Point to serve as assistant instructor of military tactics, a position he held until the summer of 1857, when, on account of failing health, he was sent to Europe on a twelve-month furlough. On his return to West Point, he published a manual on rifles and rifle firing, which became the standard textbook on the subject. Wilcox also translated and published a work on infantry evolution as practiced in the Austrian Army.[2]
He was ordered to New Mexico Territory in 1860, and was promoted to the rank of captain in the 4th Infantry on December 20.[1]
Civil War service
While serving in the New Mexico Territory in June 1861, Wilcox learned of the secession of Tennessee. After tendering his resignation from the U.S. Army (accepted on June 8) he traveled to Richmond, Virginia, where he was commissioned a captain of artillery in the Confederate Army on March 16. He was later promoted to colonel and given command of the 9th Alabama Infantry Regiment on July 9.[1]
At the 1862 Battle of Seven Pines, Wilcox commanded two brigades, and at Battle of Gaines' Mill on June 27 he led three—his own, Featherston's, and Pryor's. On June 30 at the Battle of Glendale during the Seven Days Battles, nearly every regimental officer in Wilcox's command was killed, and Wilcox himself had his clothing pierced by six bullets, but he somehow escaped injury. The loss in Wilcox's brigade was heavier in the Seven Days Battles than of any other brigade in Longstreet's division. After Longstreet was elevated to corps command, Wilcox got half of his division. He led it to Second Bull Run, but was held in reserve and saw no serious action. In the Maryland Campaign, Wilcox was returned to brigade command and his division merged with Richard H. Anderson's. He fell ill and spent the Battle of Antietam resting in Martinsburg, Virginia, leaving Colonel Alfred Cumming to command his brigade during that battle.
On the third day of the battle, during Pickett's Charge, his brigade served as support on the right flank of the division of his West Point classmate, Maj. Gen. George Pickett. Heavy Union artillery fire, particularly from the guns on Cemetery Ridge under the command of Lt. Col. Freeman McGilvery, readily broke up Wilcox's assault, who ordered the brigade to withdraw.[2]
With the death of Dorsey Pender at Gettysburg, Wilcox was promoted to major general on August 3, 1863, and assigned command of Pender's division in Hill's Third Corps.[1] Wilcox's new command consisted of Lane's North Carolina brigade, Thomas's Georgia brigade, McGowan's South Carolina brigade, and Scales's North Carolina brigade.
For the rest of the war, Wilcox's Division saw heavy fighting, from the Overland Campaign through Appomattox Court House. During the final days of the Siege of Petersburg in 1865, Wilcox's last-ditch stand on April 2 at Fort Gregg helped delay the Union forces long enough for Longstreet to maneuver into position to cover the army's retreat to the west.
Postbellum career
Wilcox in later lifeGrave of Wilcox at Oak Hill Cemetery
After the close of the American Civil War, Wilcox was offered a command as a brigadier general in the Egyptian Army, but he declined it. In 1886 U.S. PresidentGrover Cleveland appointed Wilcox as chief of the railroad division for the government at Washington, D.C., and he served in that capacity until his death.[2]
A lifelong bachelor, Wilcox cared for his brother's widow and small children following John Wilcox's sudden death in February 1865.[2]
Wilcox died at the age of sixty-six in Washington, D.C., and was buried there in Oak Hill Cemetery.[1][3] His pallbearers included four former Confederate generals and four former Union generals, a token of his esteem.
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