In
Memoriam
Elias Wright
Brevet
Brigadier-General U.S. Volunteers
Died at Atlantic City N.J. January 2, 1901
Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, Commandery of the State of Pennsylvania
From the collection at the Durham
Center Museum. Transcribed by Sylvia Hasenkopf
Photos: Elias Wright and his wife, Julia.
Circular No. 6, Series of 1901, Whole No. 415
Philadelphia, March 28, 1901
Elias Wright.
Second Lieutenant 4th New Jersey Infantry August 17, 1861; First Lieutenant January 3, 1862; Captain June 24, 1863; resigned and honorably discharged June 24, 1863.
Major 1st U.S. Colored Infantry June 25, 1863; Lieutenant-Colonel April 29, 1864; honorably mustered August 14, 1864.
Colonel 10th U.S. Colored Infantry August 15, 1864; resigned and honorably discharged June 17, 1865.
Brevetted Brigadier-General U.S. Volunteers January 15, 1865.
Elected October 20, 1892. Class 1. Insignia 9776.
Born June 23, 1830, at Durham, Green Co, N.Y.
Died January 2, 1901, at Atlantic City, N.J.
Companion
Elias Wright was an educated gentleman and a man of unusual force of character -
one who would have made his mark in almost any calling. Coming from his native
town of Durham, N.Y., to Atlantic City in 1852, he was occupied in the latter
place for some time as a school teacher. Then he took up civil engineering and
surveying. When the war broke out, he organized a company of Home Guards, which
later was mustered into the 4th New Jersey Infantry. Companion Wright entered
the service as Second Lieutenant, and after having been promoted to First
Lieutenant, was taken prisoner at Gaines' Mills, Va., in 1863. After
imprisonment for some time at Richmond, Va., he was exchanged and shortly
afterward was wounded in the battle at Crampton Pass, Md. He speedily recovered
from his wound and his record thenceforward was that of a brave and soldierly
officer who
was rapidly promoted on his merits.
The Brevet rank of Brigadier-General, accorded him in June, 1865, was a fitting tribute to his brilliant military services.
When the war had ended, he returned to Atlantic City, and with his valuable training as surveyor and civil engineer was well equipped for the position which he henceforth filled. He became a high authority upon land titles in South Jersey and managed the affairs of the late Stephen Colwell, having charge of hundreds of acres in the vicinity of Weymouth until 1873, when he became the representative of Joseph Wharton's equally important interests in Burlington Co., N.J. He searched the titles of the Wharton properties back as far as 1720, and the information thus obtained has proved of the greatest value to real estate men for many years past. It covers his labors during a period of twenty-eight years and has been carefully and systematically recorded in three large volumes. These are said to constitute the most complete record of the kind in the State of New Jersey, if not in the United States. He was universally esteemed as a citizen and a man of perfect probity and honor.
W. Boardman Reed, Captain 50th Wisconsin Infantry
John E. Doughty, Captain 4th New Jersey Infantry
Timothy A. Byrnes, Major 13th Penna. Cavalry
Committee
By command of Brevet Major-General D. McM. Gregg, U.S.V., Commander
John P. Nicholson, Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel, U.S.V., Recorder