 Born to an English father and German mother in Hamburg, Germany, Wilson lived in Kristiania, Norway (now Oslo), for a time before emigrating to the United States in 1858.Having settled in Madison, Wisconsin, Wilson worked as a store clerk for a year before traveling to New Orleans in December 1859, where he became a sailor.He lived in Chicago for a time, before returning to Madison at the start of the Civil War in 1861, enlisting in the Scandinavian Regiment.