Samuel Wilkeson Jr. was a partner from 1843 to 1846. He was trained by his father-in-law, Judge Daniel Cady, another firm partner.
Wilkeson’s first love was journalism. He left the firm to pursue his ambition. He purchased the Albany Evening Journal newspaper and, later, wrote famous reports on the Battle of Gettysburg for the New York Times. Wilkeson’s son Lt. Brayard Wilkeson led a famous charge in the battle. Left in a farmhouse after having his leg destroyed by a cannon ball, Bayard amputated his own leg, but died soon thereafter. The Wilkesons are mentioned in Ken Burns’ documentary on the Civil War. Wilkeson wrote the following words at the conclusion of his article concerning the end of the battle: “Oh, you dead who at Gettysburg have baptised with your blood a second birth of Freedom in America, how you are to be envied.” Some that have suggested that these words inspired Lincoln’s words at the end of the Gettysburg address: “. . . that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that his nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
In his later years Wilkeson went west and became heavily involved in the development of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
Samuel Wilkeson’s portrait by photographer Mathew Brady is on view at the Smithsonian Art Museum.
