Cannon, William Laws

William Laws Cannon was born on April 6, 1839 at Bridgeville, Delaware and graduated from Dickinson College in 1860. He obtained a position at the Census Bureau in Washington, D.C. Cannon became a captain of the 1st Delaware cavalry in the Army of the Potomac and was placed in command of Company B of that unit. While Cannon fought during the occupation of Bel Air, Maryland, he contracted typhoid fever and died on August 18, 1863. (By John Osborne and Leigh Oczkowski)

Life span:

04/06/1839 to 08/18/1863

Dickinson Connection:

Class of 1860

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Life Summary

Full name:

William Laws Cannon

Place of Birth:

Bridgeville, DE

Birth Date Certainty:

Exact

Death Date Certainty:

Exact

Gender:

Male

Race:

White

Sectional choice:

North

Origins:

Slave State

Family:

William Cannon (father), Margaret Ann Barker Laws (mother)

Education:

Dickinson (Carlisle College)

Occupation:

Military

Military:

Union Army

Note Cards

William Laws Cannon (Dickinson Chronicles)

Scholarship

Cannon was born on April 6, 1839 at Bridgeville, Delaware. His father, William Cannon, was a successful merchant who later became governor of Delaware during the war. At Dickinson, Cannon was a member of the Union Philosophical Society as well as Phi Kappa Sigma. He received his bachelor of arts degree in 1860. After graduation he obtained a position at the Census Bureau in Washington, D.C.

Cannon became a captain of the 1st Delaware cavalry in the Army of the Potomac and was placed in command of Company B of that unit. He contracted typhoid fever during the occupation of Bel Air, Maryland, dying there on August 18, 1863.

John Osborne and James W. Gerencser, eds., “William Laws Cannon,” Dickinson Chronicles, http://chronicles.dickinson.edu/encyclo/c/ed_cannonW.htm.

Events

Major Topics

Dickinson College

Documents

Images

William Laws Cannon

William Laws Cannon, detail

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