Alexander Murdoch Wilson, son of Thomas McKenna and Elizabeth H. Wilson was born on September 21, 1841. A Canonsburg resident and law student at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, he would have graduated in 1863 had he not enlisted in Company G, 140th Pa. on August 12, 1862. He mustered in with the rank of Sergeant, was promoted to 1st Sergeant on September 9, 1862, then to 2nd Lieutenant on May 4, 1863, the day after his fellow-comrade, 2nd Lieutenant Joseph McEwen, was killed at Chancellorsville.
Immediately after the return to Camp Falmouth following the battle at Chancellorsville, there was an outbreak of typhoid dysentery in the camp. Lieutenant Alex Wilson was one of many who were suffering from the illness when the order was given to march to Gettysburg. Too sick to march and determined to go, he made the trip in an ambulance. On the morning of July 2 while awaiting the order to fall in, he was lying on the ground because he was too weak to sit up. He asked his friend and fellow classmate, Sergeant John Paxton, to help him into the fight when the order came. Paxton tried to convince him to stay behind but Wilson insisted he had to be in the fight. He reasoned with Paxton that he had just been promoted and didn't want the boys to think he was a coward. When the order came, he mustered up every bit of strength he possessed in order to make the march into the woods, leaning on Paxton's shoulder at times. Once again, Paxton pleaded with him to turn back and once again, Wilson said, "I won't; just promoted; boys must see me in it with them." They had just started across the Wheatfield when Lieutenant Wilson was struck by a bullet above the eye. He was killed instantly. His body was returned to his family in Canonsburg on July 25 and interred at Chartiers Presbyterian Church burying ground, now Oak Spring Cemetery, the following day. In his lengthy obituary that appeared in the Washington Reporter and Tribune, the following was written: "It is sad, indeed, to see those who have been trained in the paths of virtue, and who give high promise of future usefulness, stricken down in the morning of life, upon the field of carnage; but there is comfort, withal, in the thought that, "The fittest place for man to die, is where he dies for man."
Immediately after the return to Camp Falmouth following the battle at Chancellorsville, there was an outbreak of typhoid dysentery in the camp. Lieutenant Alex Wilson was one of many who were suffering from the illness when the order was given to march to Gettysburg. Too sick to march and determined to go, he made the trip in an ambulance. On the morning of July 2 while awaiting the order to fall in, he was lying on the ground because he was too weak to sit up. He asked his friend and fellow classmate, Sergeant John Paxton, to help him into the fight when the order came. Paxton tried to convince him to stay behind but Wilson insisted he had to be in the fight. He reasoned with Paxton that he had just been promoted and didn't want the boys to think he was a coward. When the order came, he mustered up every bit of strength he possessed in order to make the march into the woods, leaning on Paxton's shoulder at times. Once again, Paxton pleaded with him to turn back and once again, Wilson said, "I won't; just promoted; boys must see me in it with them." They had just started across the Wheatfield when Lieutenant Wilson was struck by a bullet above the eye. He was killed instantly. His body was returned to his family in Canonsburg on July 25 and interred at Chartiers Presbyterian Church burying ground, now Oak Spring Cemetery, the following day. In his lengthy obituary that appeared in the Washington Reporter and Tribune, the following was written: "It is sad, indeed, to see those who have been trained in the paths of virtue, and who give high promise of future usefulness, stricken down in the morning of life, upon the field of carnage; but there is comfort, withal, in the thought that, "The fittest place for man to die, is where he dies for man."
Alexander Murdoch Wilson, son of Thomas McKenna and Elizabeth H. Wilson was born on September 21, 1841. A Canonsburg resident and law student at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, he would have graduated in 1863 had he not enlisted in Company G, 140th Pa. on August 12, 1862. He mustered in with the rank of Sergeant, was promoted to 1st Sergeant on September 9, 1862, then to 2nd Lieutenant on May 4, 1863, the day after his fellow-comrade, 2nd Lieutenant Joseph McEwen, was killed at Chancellorsville.
Immediately after the return to Camp Falmouth following the battle at Chancellorsville, there was an outbreak of typhoid dysentery in the camp. Lieutenant Alex Wilson was one of many who were suffering from the illness when the order was given to march to Gettysburg. Too sick to march and determined to go, he made the trip in an ambulance. On the morning of July 2 while awaiting the order to fall in, he was lying on the ground because he was too weak to sit up. He asked his friend and fellow classmate, Sergeant John Paxton, to help him into the fight when the order came. Paxton tried to convince him to stay behind but Wilson insisted he had to be in the fight. He reasoned with Paxton that he had just been promoted and didn't want the boys to think he was a coward. When the order came, he mustered up every bit of strength he possessed in order to make the march into the woods, leaning on Paxton's shoulder at times. Once again, Paxton pleaded with him to turn back and once again, Wilson said, "I won't; just promoted; boys must see me in it with them." They had just started across the Wheatfield when Lieutenant Wilson was struck by a bullet above the eye. He was killed instantly. His body was returned to his family in Canonsburg on July 25 and interred at Chartiers Presbyterian Church burying ground, now Oak Spring Cemetery, the following day. In his lengthy obituary that appeared in the Washington Reporter and Tribune, the following was written: "It is sad, indeed, to see those who have been trained in the paths of virtue, and who give high promise of future usefulness, stricken down in the morning of life, upon the field of carnage; but there is comfort, withal, in the thought that, "The fittest place for man to die, is where he dies for man."
Immediately after the return to Camp Falmouth following the battle at Chancellorsville, there was an outbreak of typhoid dysentery in the camp. Lieutenant Alex Wilson was one of many who were suffering from the illness when the order was given to march to Gettysburg. Too sick to march and determined to go, he made the trip in an ambulance. On the morning of July 2 while awaiting the order to fall in, he was lying on the ground because he was too weak to sit up. He asked his friend and fellow classmate, Sergeant John Paxton, to help him into the fight when the order came. Paxton tried to convince him to stay behind but Wilson insisted he had to be in the fight. He reasoned with Paxton that he had just been promoted and didn't want the boys to think he was a coward. When the order came, he mustered up every bit of strength he possessed in order to make the march into the woods, leaning on Paxton's shoulder at times. Once again, Paxton pleaded with him to turn back and once again, Wilson said, "I won't; just promoted; boys must see me in it with them." They had just started across the Wheatfield when Lieutenant Wilson was struck by a bullet above the eye. He was killed instantly. His body was returned to his family in Canonsburg on July 25 and interred at Chartiers Presbyterian Church burying ground, now Oak Spring Cemetery, the following day. In his lengthy obituary that appeared in the Washington Reporter and Tribune, the following was written: "It is sad, indeed, to see those who have been trained in the paths of virtue, and who give high promise of future usefulness, stricken down in the morning of life, upon the field of carnage; but there is comfort, withal, in the thought that, "The fittest place for man to die, is where he dies for man."
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