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J.B. Williams
(c. 1836 - 1903)
Home State: Michigan
Education: US Military Academy, West Point, NY, Class of 1861;Class Rank: 26th
Command Billet: Company Commander
Branch of Service: Infantry
Before Antietam
He was nominated by his Congressman William A Howard of Michigan, and admitted to the US Military Academy at West Point, NY in March 1856. He graduated on 6 May 1861 and was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, 3rd United States Infantry. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on 6 June 1861, was at Bull Run in July, and afterward in the defenses of Washington, DC. He was on the Peninsula Campaign of 1862.
On the Campaign
He commanded Company G of the Third US Infantry at Antietam on 17 September 1862.
The rest of the War
He was on the march to Fredericksburg in November and December 1862, but then returned to Washington, DC, sick. He was on sick leave from 23 December to 11 February 1863, but was court-martialed and sentenced to be dismissed from the service to date from 11 February 1863 for "deserting his company in the presence of the enemy."
In a letter to Army Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt of 18 March 1863 President Lincoln asked if there might be mitigating circumstances (illness), but Army Adjutant General Holt reported
"It is evident that Lieut. Williams left his command on the battlefield and returned to Washington, without leave and in known violation of orders and of his duty."On April 11 the President therefore "decline[d] to interfere in Behalf of Lieut. Williams" and the verdict stood.
After the War
He was a teacher at Hyatt's Military Institute (now Pennsylvania Military College) at West Chester, but had probably moved to Beauport, Quebec, Canada by 1870 where his first child was born, and was a civil engineer. By 1901 he was living with his second wife and 3 small children in Quebec City. "He was stricken with paralysis on October 7" and died on 10 October 1903 in Quebec.
References & notes
His service from Heitman1 and Cullum2 (his Cullum number is 1913), with his command at Antietam from Reese.3 Details about his dismissal from that Lincoln letter, sold by Sotheby's in 2008, and the Collected Works.4 Personal details from family genealogists, the U.S. Military Academy Cadet Application Papers, 1805-1866, National Archives, and the Canada Census of 1881 and 1901, in which he gave his nationality as American but birthplace as Ontario. His death detail from his memorial in the Annual Reunion (1904) of the Association of Graduates USMA. His gravesite is on Findagrave, as J. Benson Williams. His picture from a CDV of unknown provenance sold on ebay.
He married Mary Elizabeth Atkinson (1845-1885) in Washington, DC in February 1862 and they had 2 daughters. He married again, Eliza Ann Quinn (1865-), in October 1892 in Quebec and they had 3 children.
Birth
c. 1836 in MI
Death
10/10/1903; Quebec, CANADA; burial in Cimetière La Nativité-de-Notre-Dame 1er, Beauport, Quebec, Canada
1 Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Vol. 1, pg. 1041 [AotW citation 29103]
2 Cullum, George Washington, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the US Military Academy, 2nd Edition, 3 vols., New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1868-79, Vol. II, pg. 796 [AotW citation 29104]
3 Reese, Timothy J., Sykes' Regular Infantry Division, 1861-1864: A History of Regular United States Infantry Operations in the Civil War's Eastern Theater, Jefferson (NC): McFarland&Company, Inc., 1990, pg. 385 [AotW citation 29105]
4 Lincoln, Abraham, and Abraham Lincoln Assn: Roy P. Basler, ed; Marion D Pratt, Lloyd A. Dunlap, asst eds., Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, 8 Volumes, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1953, Vol. 6, pg. 169 [AotW citation 29106]