[1] Wright's family were well-known Quakers in Adams county and he finished his education at the Academy at Gettysburg, under the charge of Herman Haupt.

He started under chief engineer Samuel W. Mifflin (1805-1885) who was in charge of the mountain division, extending from Jack's narrows to the Allegheny summit.

The names of the other assistants were Edward Tilghman, A. Worral, Strickland Kneass, and Thomas T. Wierman (1813-1887), another Adams County resident.

Nevins, G. F. spear, W.R Fulton, and Samuel Longmand was recruited by Herman Haupt as a civilian foreman to help rebuild the Fredericksburg railroad from Aquia Creek.

In November 1862, Wright was assigned by Haupt as Chief Engineer and Superintendent of Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad to rebuild the wharves at Acquia creek as well as fifteen miles of the railroad[7] to Fredericksburg, Virginia controlled by the Union army with Adna Anderson acted as chief engineer of construction.

After rebuilding the bridges and wharves for the road, Wright was forced to abandon Acquia creek on September 6, 1862, due to Lee's victory at the Second Battle of Bull Run.

[16] As fast as the Union army occupied new territory, the railroads had to be reconstructed and opened for use, and they were always subject to constant guerrilla raids.

Colonel Reuben D. Mussey Jr. recruited African-American soldiers for the Union Army, being detailed to act as a commissioner for organizing black troops with headquarters at Nashville.

Three new divisions were to be mobilized to support the railroad rebuilding work assigned to Wright who now commanded almost six thousand men.

[13] McCallum's objective was to mobilize a military railroad to supply Sherman's Atlanta campaign in 1864 using 200 locomotives and 3,000 pieces of rolling stock.

[13] Just prior to Sherman starting his campaign, 130 freight cars a day arrived in Chattanooga carrying food, ammunition, and supplies only; troops and livestock were marched in.

[13] Sherman's campaign depended on bringing supplies over railroad lines maintained by Wright's construction corps.

[13] Sherman noted this contribution when he said that this single rail line "supplied an army of 100,000 men and 35,000 horses for a period of 196 days" in the 1864 campaign.

[13] At the close of 1864, Wright was ordered by General Sherman to Savannah, where he arrived with his construction corps of 1,200 men on January 13, 1865, and was put in charge of the military railroad work in that vicinity.

[2] The US Congress had approved legislation in 1866, authorizing the railway to extend the railroad westward along the Smoky Hill River to Denver, Colorado.