John Wallace Fuller

John Wallace Fuller (July 28, 1827 – March 12, 1891) was a British-born American publisher, businessman, and soldier. He served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. After the war, Fuller engaged in the wholesale footwear trade as well as in civil affairs in Ohio.

Early life and career John W. Fuller was born in the village of Harston, located in the English county of Cambridgeshire. His father was a minister of the Baptist faith and also a graduate of Bristol College in England, and was responsible for much of Fuller's primary education. In 1833, Fuller relocated with the family to Oneida County, New York. There, the rest of his education came from reading in a bookstore in Utica, and starting in 1841, Fuller began working there.

By 1852, Fuller owned and operated a publishing business in Utica and was later the city's treasurer. He was also active in the New York State Militia, serving as an officer. Fuller and the 27th first served in Missouri under Brig. Gens. John Pope and David Hunter.

Fuller spent most 1863 on garrison duty within the Army of the Tennessee, and was promoted to brigadier general on January 5, 1864. Fuller was brevetted to the rank of major general in the Union Army on March 13, and after the end of the war he resigned that fall.

Fuller was one of the few generals in the Civil War who was not born in the United States.

Postbellum

Fuller resigned from the Union Army on August 15, 1865, and returned to his civilian life in Ohio. He was the senior partner of the firm Fuller, Childs & Company in Toledo, a business dealing in the wholesale of boots and shoes. In 1874, Fuller was appointed the collector of customs for Toledo, a post he held until 1881.

On October 3–4, 1878, the members of the "Ohio Brigade" held a reunion at Columbus, Ohio, in which Fuller attended and made a speech. During the event, a permanent organization was created for future reunions, with Fuller as its first president. In 1888, he retired from his business concerns.

Fuller was in Toledo when he died in 1891 and he was buried in the city's Woodlawn Cemetery.