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Wilson, James Grant

soldier, author, was born April 28, 1832, in Edinburg, Scotland. In 1857 he established the first literary paper in Chicago. He raised a battalion of cavalry, and was commissioned major of the fifteenth Illinois cavalry. He was subsequently aide-de-camp on the staff of General Banks, and was brevetted brigadier for gallantry in the field. Since that time he has pursued a literary career in New York city. In 1897 he published a valuable life of General Grant, with whom he was intimate for a quarter of a century. He erected statues in Central park to his friend, Fitz-Greene Halleck, and in 1892 to Christopher Columbus. Besides editing Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, he has published Poets and Poetry of Scotland; Mr. Secretary Pepys and His Diary; Love in Letters; Bryant and His Friends; Centennial History of the Drama of New York; Life of General Grant; Life of Fitz- Greene Halleck; and Sketches of Illustrious Soldiers.