Joseph Shields Wilson was born in Ireland circa 1806 and settled in the District of Columbia at an early age.
[1] With the organization of the Department of the Interior in 1849, he became Chief Clerk of the United States General Land Office.
Their oldest child Mary Shields Wilson became the wife of Brevet Brig.
Gen. Thomas Wilson, a 1853 United States Military Academy graduate who served as Chief Commissary of Subsistence for the Army of the Potomac, and their third child was Brig.
Gen. John Moulder Wilson, a 1860 West Point graduate and Medal of Honor recipient.