Thomas Wakefield Sanderson was born on October 17, 1829, in Indiana, Pennsylvania, to Matthew and Mary Sanderson. The family moved to Ohio in the 1830s and eventually settled in Youngstown. By 1850, Sanderson was working as a lawyer. He married Elizabeth Shoemaker on December 19, 1854, and their daughter Louise was born around 1858. Sanderson was elected prosecuting attorney for the county in 1856, and he served for one term. By 1860, he owned $500 of real estate and $500 of personal property.

 

On September 12, 1861, Sanderson received a commission as a 1^st lieutenant in the 2^nd Ohio Cavalry. He was promoted to captain on October 7, 1861. He resigned on May 14, 1862, but he returned to the Union army in early 1863 as a major in the 10^th Ohio Cavalry.

 

The regiment took part in the Chickamauga campaign, the Atlanta campaign, the March to the Sea, and the Carolinas campaign. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel on April 20, 1864, and then to colonel on January 30, 1865. By June 1865, he was commanding his brigade, and he may have received a brevet promotion to brigadier general that summer. He mustered out on July 24, 1865.

 

He returned to Youngstown after the war and resumed his work as a lawyer. By 1870, he owned $4,000 of real estate and $1,000 of personal property, and he employed at least one white domestic servant. He supported the Republican Party, and he served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1872. He applied for a federal pension in August 1889 and eventually secured one. He died of “kidney trouble” in Youngstown on January 26, 1908.

 

Image: Thomas Wakefield Sanderson (Men of Ohio in Nineteen Hundred)

SOURCES