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Alpheus S. Williams
Alpheus Starkey Williams (September 20, 1810 – December 21, 1878) was a lawyer, judge, journalist, U.S. congressman, and a Union general in the American Civil War.
Williams was born in Deep River, Connecticut. He graduated from Yale University with a law degree in 1831. His father, who died when Williams was eight years old, had left him a sizable inheritance, which he used between 1832 and 1836 for extensive travel in the United States and Europe. Upon his return, he settled in Detroit, Michigan, which was a booming frontier town in 1836. He established himself as a lawyer and married the daughter of a prominent family, Jane Hereford Larned, with whom he produced five children, two of whom died as infants. Jane herself died young as well, in 1848, at the age of 30.
Williams had a variety of careers in Detroit. He was elected probate judge of Wayne County, Michigan; in 1842, president of the Bank of St. Clair; in 1843, the owner and editor of the Detroit Advertiser daily newspaper; from 1849 to 1853, postmaster of Detroit.
When Williams arrived in Detroit in 1836, he joined a company in the Michigan Militia and maintained a connection to the military activities of the city for years. In 1847, he was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 1st Michigan Infantry destined for the Mexican–American War, but it arrived too late to see any action. He also served as the president of the state's military board and in 1859 was a major in the Detroit Light Guard.
At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Williams was involved in training the first army volunteers in Michigan. He was appointed brigadier general of volunteers on May 17, 1861. His first assignment after leaving the training camps was as a brigade commander in Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks's division of the Army of the Potomac, from October 1861 to March 1862. He then assumed division command in the V Corps of the Army of the Potomac, as of March 13, 1862. This division was transferred to the Department of the Shenandoah from April to June of that year. Williams and Banks were sent to fight Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley and were thoroughly outmaneuvered, allowing Jackson to bottle them up in the Valley with his much smaller force.
On June 26, Williams's division was transferred to the Army of Virginia, under Maj. Gen. John Pope, for the Northern Virginia Campaign. In the Battle of Cedar Mountain, Banks's Corps was again up against Jackson, and was again defeated. The corps was at Bristoe Station and did not participate in the Second Battle of Bull Run.
Williams's division rejoined the Army of the Potomac as the 1st Division of the XII Corps and marched north in the Maryland Campaign to the Battle of Antietam. On the way, troops from the division found the famous Confederate "lost dispatch," Special Order 191, that revealed Gen. Robert E. Lee's plan for the campaign and gave Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan key insights on how to defeat Lee's divided army. The division was heavily engaged at Sharpsburg, once again up against Jackson on the Confederate left flank. The corps commander, Maj. Gen. Joseph K. Mansfield, was killed early at Antietam, and Williams assumed temporary command. The corps suffered 25% casualties in assaulting Jackson, and Brig. Gen. George S. Greene's division was forced to withdraw from its advanced position at the Dunker Church. George McClellan assigned Maj. Gen Henry Slocum permanent command of the XII Corps after the battle.
Williams's division missed the next major battle for the Army of the Potomac, the Battle of Fredericksburg, because it was engaged in defending the Potomac River in the Reserve. In the Battle of Chancellorsville, on May 2, 1863, Stonewall Jackson's corps executed a surprise flanking movement and smashed into the right flank of the Army of the Potomac, severely damaging the unsuspecting XI Corps. The neighboring division, under Williams, entrenched hastily and was able to stop the Confederate advance before it overran the entire army, but it suffered 1,500 casualties in the process.
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Alpheus S. Williams
Alpheus Starkey Williams (September 20, 1810 – December 21, 1878) was a lawyer, judge, journalist, U.S. congressman, and a Union general in the American Civil War.
Williams was born in Deep River, Connecticut. He graduated from Yale University with a law degree in 1831. His father, who died when Williams was eight years old, had left him a sizable inheritance, which he used between 1832 and 1836 for extensive travel in the United States and Europe. Upon his return, he settled in Detroit, Michigan, which was a booming frontier town in 1836. He established himself as a lawyer and married the daughter of a prominent family, Jane Hereford Larned, with whom he produced five children, two of whom died as infants. Jane herself died young as well, in 1848, at the age of 30.
Williams had a variety of careers in Detroit. He was elected probate judge of Wayne County, Michigan; in 1842, president of the Bank of St. Clair; in 1843, the owner and editor of the Detroit Advertiser daily newspaper; from 1849 to 1853, postmaster of Detroit.
When Williams arrived in Detroit in 1836, he joined a company in the Michigan Militia and maintained a connection to the military activities of the city for years. In 1847, he was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 1st Michigan Infantry destined for the Mexican–American War, but it arrived too late to see any action. He also served as the president of the state's military board and in 1859 was a major in the Detroit Light Guard.
At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Williams was involved in training the first army volunteers in Michigan. He was appointed brigadier general of volunteers on May 17, 1861. His first assignment after leaving the training camps was as a brigade commander in Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks's division of the Army of the Potomac, from October 1861 to March 1862. He then assumed division command in the V Corps of the Army of the Potomac, as of March 13, 1862. This division was transferred to the Department of the Shenandoah from April to June of that year. Williams and Banks were sent to fight Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley and were thoroughly outmaneuvered, allowing Jackson to bottle them up in the Valley with his much smaller force.
On June 26, Williams's division was transferred to the Army of Virginia, under Maj. Gen. John Pope, for the Northern Virginia Campaign. In the Battle of Cedar Mountain, Banks's Corps was again up against Jackson, and was again defeated. The corps was at Bristoe Station and did not participate in the Second Battle of Bull Run.
Williams's division rejoined the Army of the Potomac as the 1st Division of the XII Corps and marched north in the Maryland Campaign to the Battle of Antietam. On the way, troops from the division found the famous Confederate "lost dispatch," Special Order 191, that revealed Gen. Robert E. Lee's plan for the campaign and gave Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan key insights on how to defeat Lee's divided army. The division was heavily engaged at Sharpsburg, once again up against Jackson on the Confederate left flank. The corps commander, Maj. Gen. Joseph K. Mansfield, was killed early at Antietam, and Williams assumed temporary command. The corps suffered 25% casualties in assaulting Jackson, and Brig. Gen. George S. Greene's division was forced to withdraw from its advanced position at the Dunker Church. George McClellan assigned Maj. Gen Henry Slocum permanent command of the XII Corps after the battle.
Williams's division missed the next major battle for the Army of the Potomac, the Battle of Fredericksburg, because it was engaged in defending the Potomac River in the Reserve. In the Battle of Chancellorsville, on May 2, 1863, Stonewall Jackson's corps executed a surprise flanking movement and smashed into the right flank of the Army of the Potomac, severely damaging the unsuspecting XI Corps. The neighboring division, under Williams, entrenched hastily and was able to stop the Confederate advance before it overran the entire army, but it suffered 1,500 casualties in the process.