Through the years I've tried to memorialize the stories of outstanding (and some average) military career of Firelands citizens. We've had more than our share of Congressional Medal of Honor winners, and the story of yet another one of these winners is on my desk. Actually, I should say that part of the story is revealed to me; there are some parts beyond my research parameters.

The Medal of Honor was awarded to Sgt. Milden (aka Mileden) H. Wilson for his actions in the Battle of Big Hole in Montana in 1877. Sgt. Wilson survived a long military career which started on March 12, 1864, when he enlisted at the age of 17 in the 87th Regiment of Indiana Infantry during the Civil War. His father, William Wilson, also served with the 87th Regiment but had been discharged with a disability before Milden enlisted.

He enlisted in the regular army after the Civil War and was finally discharged to retirement in 1897 as an Ordnance Sergeant. He lived the remainder of his life in the Chicago area and died there in 1924. In his last years he drew a pension for his service, and that continued with his wife, Sarah, after his death.

Sgt. Wilson always spelled his first name as Milden, though I've supposed it should have been Mileden in honor of his mother's brother, Mileden Wonser. Mrs. Wilson (nee Marietta Wonser) was the daughter of Jared Wonser, who lived northwest of Norwalk in the Jacobsburg neighborhood, near the intersection of Whittlesey and Schaffer Roads. I surmise that Milden H. Wilson was born in that neighborhood before his parents moved LaPorte County, Indiana, their permanent home.

The Battle of Big Hole in 1877 was considered a major event of the Nez Perce War in Montana. Sgt. Milden Wilson was then a member of Company I of the 7th U.S. Infantry. He was cited especially for forming a company of men from a line of skirmishers and deploying them against heavy enemy fire. He also carried dispatchers to and from the thick of battle at a great risk of life. Five other men also received the Medal of Honor for actions in this battle. It is said that he was also in or near the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876.

It is an interesting coincidence that a Milan man was killed in the Big Hole conflict, but there is no apparent connection between him and Sgt. Wilson. This casualty was Sgt. Leonard Kline, a son of George and Polly Meeker Kline. Their family home for many years is now as the Sayles House in the Milan Historical Museum complex. Like Milden Wilson, he enlisted in the arm during the Civil War and then stayed in the regular army when the war ended. After his death in 1877 at a Catholic mission hospital in Deer Lodge, Montana, he was buried in the cemetery at Fort Shaw.

One of the best accounts of the Big Hole battle and the Nez Perce Campaign can be found in the journals of Lt. James Bradley, who was killed in this battle. He planned to write a history of the American West, but was killed before he could do so. His notes were preserved, however. Lt. Bradley was born in Bellevue, Ohio, in 1844, and like Sgts. Wilson and Kline, had served in the Civil War before enlisting in the regular army to serve in the Indian wars.

Milden H Wilson