George Day Wagner

George Day Wagner was born September 22, 1829, in Ross County, Ohio, moved with his parents to a farm in Warren County, Indiana at the age of four, and was educated in country schools. A Republican, he was elected in 1856 to the lower house of the Indiana Legislature and, in 1858, to the state senate. Before the onset of the Civil War, he campaigned for Abraham Lincoln and served as president of the state agricultural society. Following the outbreak of war, he volunteered and was commissioned colonel of the 15th Indiana on June 14, 1861. He served in West Virginia and commanded a brigade of D. C. Buell’s Army of the Ohio on the second day at Shiloh. There, he received the commendation of T. J. Wood, his division commander. Wagner participated at Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, and was commander of the post at Chattanooga. He was commissioned brigadier general April 4, 1863, to rank from November 29, 1862. In November 1863, Wagner’s brigade defeated the Confederate forces of Braxton Bragg at Missionary Ridge, Tennessee. They had effectively removed the Confederates from the mountain at the cost of seven hundred Union casualties. In the Atlanta campaign, he commanded a brigade in the IV Corps and was sent back to Tennessee with T. H. Thomas and the Army of the Cumberland to face John B. Hood. A part of his division of the IV Corps was a half mile in advance of the main Union position on November 30, 1864, at Franklin, and Wagner had orders to withdraw when it seemed imminent that Hood was about to launch a major assault. He disobeyed orders remaining to fight although heavily outnumbered. The two forward brigades were overrun and fled with Confederate Rebels so closely behind that the main line could not fire on them. Some Confederate troops did penetrate the Union line, but were handled by reserves. He was relieved from further duty with the Army of the Cumberland on December 9, 1864, at his own request, allegedly due to the illness of his wife. He was sent to Indianapolis to await orders and did serve in St. Louis near the end of the war. He was honorably mustered out of the service on August 24, 1865, but without the customary brevet of major general. He began a law practice in Williamsport, Indiana following his wife’s death in 1865. On February 13, 1869, George Day Wagner unexpectedly died in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was buried near the farm where he grew up in Warren County at Armstrong Cemetery.

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