Edward Augustus Wild | |
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Brig General Edward A. Wild
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Born |
Brookline, Massachusetts |
November 25, 1825
Died | August 28, 1891 Medellin, Colombia |
(aged 65)
Place of burial | Cementerio de San Pedro, Medellin, Colombia |
Allegiance |
Ottoman Empire United States of America Union |
Service/branch |
Ottoman Army United States Army Union Army |
Years of service | 1855–1856 (Ottoman Empire) 1861–1866 (USA) |
Rank | Brigadier general |
Commands held | 35th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry |
Battles/wars |
Crimean War,
American Civil War
Edward Augustus Wild (November 25, 1825 – August 28, 1891) was an American homeopathic doctor and a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Wild was a native of Brookline, Massachusetts, the second son of homeopath Dr. Charles Wild and his wife Mary. He earned his medical degree in 1846 from Harvard and at Jefferson Medical College, and he also studied homeopathy, becoming a member of the Massachusetts Society of Homeopathy. Wild then traveled and studied medicine in Paris, France.
Wild practiced alongside his father as a homeopathic physician in Brookline until 1855, when he and his new wife traveled to Turkey. He joined the Ottoman Army as a medical officer and served in the Crimean War. He then returned to Massachusetts and resumed his medical practice.
With the outbreak of the Civil War, Wild enlisted in the Union Army as a front-line officer, preferring to command troops rather than to treat their injuries. He served as a captain in Company A of the 1st Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. from May 1861 until July 1862. He fought in First Battle of Bull Run and again in the Peninsula Campaign, where he was wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines. On August 21, he was appointed Colonel of the 35th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry and assigned to the Army of the Potomac's IX Corps. Wild led his new regiment into combat during the Maryland Campaign. At the Battle of South Mountain, Wild suffered another severe wound, one that necessitated the amputation of his left arm. He returned home to recuperate.