William Wells (general)

William Wells
William Wells, Medal of Honor recipient
Born	(1837-12-14)December 14, 1837 Waterbury, Vermont
Died	April 29, 1892(1892-04-29) (aged 54) New York City, New York
Place of burial	Lakeview Cemetery, Burlington, Vermont
Allegiance	United States of America Union
Service/branch	United States Army Union Army Vermont National Guard
Years of service	1861–1866 (Army) 1866–1872 (National Guard)
Rank	Brigadier General Brevet Major General
Unit	1st Vermont Cavalry
Battles/wars	American Civil War
Awards	Medal of Honor
Other work	Businessman, Politics

Big Round Top cavalry charge
Part of Battle of Gettysburg, third day cavalry battles
The Wells cavalry charge rode eastward across Plum Run and along a stone wall to where "the troopers reached the spur" of Big Round Top and turned north to pass to the rear of Law's Alabama regiments. The Confederates turned about and fired on the cavalry: "It was a swift, charge, over rocks, through timber, under close enfilading fire." (Captain Henry C. Parsons) After "a struggle, the hill was carried by the 1st Vermont", and in 1891, Wells received the Medal of Honor "for leading the second battalion of [the 1st Vermont] regiment on a daring charge" at Gettysburg.
Date July 3, 1863 (5 pm) Location Gettysburg Battlefield, Pennsylvania Result hill "carried by the 1st Vermont", 1891 Wells' Medal of Honor
Belligerents
USA (Union)	CSA (Confederacy)
Commanders and leaders
Major William Wells
Strength
2nd Battalion, 1st VT	5 regiments of Law's Brigade
Following Wells' 1891 Medal of Honor for the charge, his statue was erected on the 1913 1st Vermont monument.

William W. Wells, Jr. (December 14, 1837 – April 29, 1892) was a businessman, politician, and general in the Union Army during the American Civil War who received a Medal of Honor for gallantry at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Wells was born in Waterbury, Vermont, the third of ten children (nine boys) of William and Eliza Wells. He began his education in the common schools of his native town, and mastered the higher branches in Barre Academy and Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, New Hampshire. While in Barre at the age of 17, he used an odometer in surveying for a county map of Caledonia County, a task which occupied him for two months. From the age of nineteen until the spring of 1861, he was his father's assistant in his extensive business.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, William Wells and three of his brothers joined the Union army. Wells enlisted as a private soldier on September 9, 1861, and assisted in raising Company C of the 1st Vermont Cavalry. He was sworn into Federal service October 3, 1861, and was soon promoted first lieutenant and then captain in November of that year. He was in the thickest of the fight at Orange Court House, Virginia, August 2, 1862, and was promoted to major on October 30, 1862.

Wells commanded the Second Battalion, 1st Vermont Cavalry, in the repulse of Stuart's Cavalry at the Battle of Hanover during the Gettysburg Campaign. In the famous and desperate cavalry charge on Big Round Top on the third day at Gettysburg (July 3, 1863), he commanded the leading battalion, rode by the side of General Farnsworth, the brigade commander, and, almost by a miracle, came out unharmed, while his commander fell in the midst of the enemy's infantry. A few days later, in the savage cavalry melee at the Battle of Boonsboro in Maryland, Wells was wounded by a sabre cut. At Culpeper Court House, Virginia, September 13, 1863, he charged the enemy's artillery with his regiment and captured a gun, and was again wounded, by a shell. Congress later awarded Wells a Medal of Honor "for distinguished gallantry at the battle of Gettysburg, July 3, 1863."