The Biographical Dictionary of America/Allcock, Thomas

ALLCOCK, Thomas, manufacturer, born in Birmingham, England, in 1814. He came to the United States in 1845, and invested his capital in a small drug store under the Astor House. He built up a good business, and in 1854 invented a porous plaster, the sale of which made an appreciable increase in his income. At the breaking out of the civil war he joined the Union army as assistant adjutant-general on the staff of General Gates, and afterwards helped to organize a regiment of artillery, of which he was appointed major. He was actively engaged in nearly a score of battles, receiving a wound at the battle of Ream's Station, and for his brave conduct he received the brevet rank of brigadier-general. He remained in business in New York from the close of the war until his death, which occurred in New York city, Dec. 27, 1891.