Williams, Alpheus Starkey

Life Span
to
    Full name
    Alpheus Starkey Williams
    Place of Birth
    Birth Date Certainty
    Exact
    Death Date Certainty
    Exact
    Gender
    Male
    Race
    White
    Sectional choice
    North
    Origins
    Free State
    No. of Spouses
    2
    No. of Children
    9
    Family
    Ezra Williams (father), Hepzibah Starkey (mother), Jane Larned Pierson (first wife, 1839), Martha Ann Conant Tillman (second wife, 1873)
    Education
    Yale
    Occupation
    Politician
    Military
    Diplomat
    Attorney or Judge
    Journalist
    Other
    Other Occupation
    Banker
    Relation to Slavery
    White non-slaveholder
    Political Parties
    Democratic
    Government
    Taylor Administration (1849-50)
    Fillmore Administration (1850-53)
    Johnson Administration (1865-69)
    Diplomat
    US House of Representatives
    State judge
    Local government
    Military
    US military (Pre-Civil War)
    US military (Post-Civil War)

    Alpheus Starkey Williams (Congressional Biographical Directory)

    Reference
    WILLIAMS, Alpheus Starkey, a Representative from Michigan; born in Saybrook, Middlesex County, Conn., September 20, 1810; was graduated from Yale College in 1831; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1837 and commenced practice in Detroit, Mich.; judge of probate 1840-1844; editor of the Detroit Daily Advertiser 1843-1847; served in the war with Mexico; commissioned lieutenant colonel of the First Michigan Infantry December 8, 1847; mustered out July 29, 1848; postmaster of Detroit 1849-1853; commissioned brigadier general of Michigan Volunteers April 24, 1861, and of United States Volunteers May 17, 1861; brevetted major general of Volunteers January 12, 1865; mustered out January 15, 1866; unsuccessful nominee for Governor of Michigan in 1866; Minister Resident to San Salvador 1866-1869; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-fourth and Forty-fifth Congresses and served from March 4, 1875, until his death in Washington, D.C., December 21, 1878; chairman, Committee on District of Columbia (Forty-fifth Congress); interment in Elmwood Cemetery, Detroit, Mich.
    "Williams, Alpheus Starkey," Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 to Present, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=W000487.

    Alpheus Starkey Williams (American National Biography)

    Scholarship
    Williams's greatest and most crucial performance as a combat leader took place on 2-3 July 1863 at Gettysburg, where he again was acting commander of the XII Corps. On the afternoon of 2 July, having been ordered to bolster the Union left against a threatened Confederate breakthrough, he pulled his troops from their works on the Union right and successfully accomplished his mission. Then, on returning that night to his former sector, he discovered that a strong enemy force had occupied his empty trenches, putting itself in position to seize Culp's Hill, the loss of which would have led to Union retreat and probable defeat. Wisely refraining from a night attack, Williams waited until daylight, then mounted an assault that Edwin B. Coddington described as "well-conceived" and "efficiently executed," with the result that the Confederates were driven back and the danger to Culp's Hill eliminated. Few northern generals contributed more to the Union victory at Gettysburg than Williams.
    Albert Castel, "Williams, Alpheus Starkey," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/05/05-00839.html.
    How to Cite This Page: "Williams, Alpheus Starkey," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/12199.