Alpheus S. Williams
| Alpheus Starkey Williams | |
|---|---|
Alpheus S. Williams
|
|
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan's 1st district |
|
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In office March 4, 1875 – December 21, 1878 |
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| Preceded by | Moses W. Field |
| Succeeded by | John Stoughton Newberry |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
September 29, 1810 Deep River, Connecticut |
| Died | December 21, 1878 (aged 68) Washington, D.C. |
| Resting place | Elmwood Cemetery, Detroit, Michigan |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |
United States of America Union |
| Service/branch |
United States Army Union Army |
| Years of service | 1847–1848, 1861–1866 |
| Rank |
 Brevet Major General
|
| Commands | XII Corps |
| Battles/wars | American Civil War |
Alpheus Starkey Williams (September 29, 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 the state. He was promoted to 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.
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