James Madison Papers

To James Madison from Daniel D. Tompkins, 24 December 1812 (Abstract)

§ From Daniel D. Tompkins

24 December 1812, Albany. Brings to JM’s attention Capt. John E. Wool1 of the Thirteenth Infantry Regiment, who was “Commandant on Queenstown heights for a part of the 13th of October & lead the party which attacked and carried the British works on the high ground in which he received a wound.” Is informed by Van Rensselaer and others of Wool’s good conduct and gallantry during that engagement; recommends him “to the notice & patronage of Government.”

RC (PHi: Daniel Parker Papers). 1 p.; docketed as received in the War Department on 13 Jan. 1813.

1John Ellis Wool (1784–1869) of Troy, New York, enjoyed a long and successful military career. He entered the U.S. Army as a captain of the Thirteenth Regiment in April 1812. After being wounded in the Battle of Queenston, he was promoted to the rank of major in April 1813 and to the rank of lieutenant colonel by brevet in September 1814 for gallant conduct at the Battle of Plattsburgh. After the war he became a full colonel and in April 1816 inspector general of the army, a post he held for twenty-five years. Wool was involved in the resettlement of the Cherokee Nation in 1836 and was a key participant in the Mexican-American War, with the rank of brigadier general. After successive commands of the Eastern Military District, the Department of the Pacific, and the Department of the East, Wool was given command of the Department of Virginia during the Civil War, receiving a major general’s commission in 1862. He retired from active service the following year (A Sketch of the Life and Public Services of Maj. Gen. John E. Wool [New York, 1851], 4–7, 10; Samuel Rezneck, “The Civil War Role 1861–1863 of a Veteran New York Officer Major-General John E. Wool [1784–1869],” New York History 44 [1963]: 237, 238, 245).

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