Military officer; born in
Philadelphia, Pa., Nov. 14, 1827; entered the
National army in 1861, and was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers, Nov. 29, 1862, for services at
Antietam.
The sufferings of the
Union prisoners at
Richmond caused efforts to be made early in 1864 to release them.
For this purpose
Gen. B. F. Butler, in command of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina, planned and attempted a movement for the capture of
Richmond by a sudden descent upon it. Arrangements were made for a diversion in favor of the movement.
On Feb. 5, 1864,
Butler sent a column of cavalry and infantry under
General Wistar, 1,500 in number, who pushed rapidly northward from New Kent Court-house to the
Chickahominy at Bottom's Bridge.
General Kilpatrick was sent from the Army of the Potomac to cooperate with
Wistar.
With his cavalry and two divisions of
Hancock's infantry, he crossed the
Rapidan, and skirmished sharply with the
Confederates to divert their attention from
Richmond, and when the time for the execution of the raid had expired these troops recrossed the
Rapidan, having sustained a loss of about 200 men. This raid was fruitless.
The Confederates had been apprized by a traitor of the movement that
Wistar intended to make.
Wistar found the line of the
Chickahominy too strongly guarded to pass it, and he returned.
General Wistar was president of the Academy of Natural Sciences of
Philadelphia in 1892-96; founded the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology in
Philadelphia; and has written and spoken much on penology.
