Now They Know

 The mystery over the identity of persons whose names graced the 23 Civil War fortifications in Northern Kentucky is slowly yielding.

 Ft. Wright, site of one of the larger fortifications, has been basking in the glory of its historic name, but try as city officials might, they were unable to determine which Wright they owed patronage to.

 Now they know.

 General Horatio Gouverneur Wright was born in Clinton, Connecticut, March 6, 1820.  His parents were Edward and Nancy Wright.

 Wright graduated second in his class from West Point and was appointed a lieutenant in the engineers.  He married Louisa M. Bradford of Culpepper, Virginia in 1842.

 He was an instructor at the military academy in 1846, and for the next 10 years he supervised the river and harbor projects in the south.

 When the Civil War broke out, he was promoted to brigadier general and placed in command of the Third Brigade of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s forces.  During the war he participated in Gettysburg, Rappahannock Bridge, the Wilderness Campaign, Spotsvlvania, Cedar Creek and the Shenandoah Valley.

 It was still early in the war, September, 1962, when he was dispatched to Cincinnati to join Gen. Ormsby M. Mitchel (the city of Ft. Mitchell is named after the general, the second letter ‘l’ was added later), and Col. Charles Whittlessey to help defend the area from a Confederate invasion.

 After the war, he was appointed chief engineer for the Washington Monument project which was dedicated in 1885.  Wright died in 1899 and he and his wife lie buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D.C.

by Chester Geaslen, writing in the Cincinnati Enquirer, February 16, 1967