Garth Wilkinson ("Wilky") James b. New York, 1845; d. Milwaukee, 1883 Named after J.J. Garth Wilkinson, an English proponent of Emanuel Swedenborg's writings, which so greatly influenced Henry James Sr., Garth Wilkinson James -- known as Wilky -- was born in New York City in 1845, the third son of the illustrious intellectual James family. Wilky, however, was unlike his older brothers William and Henry. An undistinguished student and a writer only of letters, Wilky preferred a life of action. As a result, Wilky achieved some degree of Jamesian "greatness" and unquestioned admiration from his siblings and parents through his service in the Civil War. But his postwar life, although enhanced by a peaceful marriage, was marked by multiple failures and financial difficulties. A Soldier Against Slavery In a family that subscribed to the principles of abolition, Wilky was the most committed abolitionist of the lot, for whom the cause of emancipation became more than just a theoretical commitment to freedom and moral justice. As an impressionable adolescent, he, together with his younger brother Robertson ("Bob"), had been enrolled by their father at the Sanborn Academy in Concord, Massachusetts, whose headmaster, Francis Sanborn, was an ardent abolitionist. Wilky's upbringing undoubtedly influenced his decision to enlist with the Union forces at the age of 17, eventually transferring to Col. Shaw's 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the first of two black regiments in the state and the first black regiment recruited in any free state. He participated heroically in the futile charge on Fort Wagner in South Carolina (dramatized in the film Glory), where he sustained serious injuries to his legs and feet, injuries which would plague him throughout the rest of his brief life. Disillusionment Carries a Cost Wilky cast about for purposeful activities after the war, eventually deciding to establish himself in Florida as part of the American Land Company and Agency, whose business plan was to send Northerners into the South to buy and operate plantations and to employ emancipated blacks as the main source of labor. The youngest James brother, Bob, accompanied him, although he gave up on the arduous task before Wilky did. Wilky persisted until 1867, running up a significant debt and losing a substantial amount of family money he had persuaded his father to invest. After he acknowledged the Florida venture as a bust, Wilky drifted back to the family home in Boston, then traveled briefly to California with family friend Ralph Waldo Emerson and other notables. Finally he decided to join Bob in Milwaukee, where he married Caroline Cary in 1873 and became a father. He moved about from one business to another, but all were unsuccessful, and he continued to be plagued by ill health and financial difficulties for the rest of his life, mitigated to some extent by his wife's family money. Betrayed and Disinherited In the last months before his own death, Henry Sr. calculated that the family's losses in Wilky's Florida venture had been so great that he cut his then-terminally ill son out of his will, arguing that Wilky had already spent his part of the patrimony. He divided the remaining fortune equally among his other three sons, with property going to his daughter, Alice. Wilky took his father's posthumous judgement hard. He was well aware that Henry Sr. had broken his own father's will to gain what he thought was his fair due. He also knew his original faith in humanity and his commitment to the cause of emancipation had been drawn in part from his father's teachings, which had inspired him to enlist for service in the war and had caused him to stay in Florida longer than was perhaps wise. To his credit, Henry Jr., who had been named executor of the will and could benefit by it, saw the unfairness of his father's decision and persuaded William and the others to revise its terms to benefit Wilky and his children. A year later, in 1883, Wilky died in Milwaukee of Bright's disease. He was 38 years old.