(from Steven Schoenherr’s archived Web page, dated 2006)

John T. Wilder, known as the “Friendly Carpetbagger” was the leader of the Lightning Brigade of Indiana and hero of the battle of Chickamauga in Sept. 1863 where he and his men armed with 7-shot Spencers gave Thomas time to form a defense line.  He was one of the 20,000 Union veterans who immigrated to the South by 1866, attracted by the possibilities of places that they had seen during their military campaigns.

In September, 1865, he and his friend, Capt. Hiram S. Chamberlain of Knox County, purchased 728 acres of land in Roane County along the Tennessee River and founded the town of Rockwood with its Roane Iron Company, one of the first post-war industrial establishments in the South.

Wilder would continue to hold interests in mining and cement and banking around Knoxville, Tennessee, and built the 300-room Cloudland Hotel on Roane Mt. summit [Carter County, TN] in 1885 as a retreat for hay fever sufferers.

Click here to visit the Wikipedia page for John Thomas Wilder (1830-1917).  He is buried at Forest Hills Cemetery, Chattanooga.

Click here to visit an archived page about the Wilder Tower, honoring Col. John T. Wilder’s “Lightning Brigade” at Chickamauga.