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S.Williams
(1822 - 1866)
Home State: Maryland
Education: US Military Academy, West Point, NY, Class of 1842;Class Rank: 23
Command Billet: Staff officer
Branch of Service: Staff
Unit: Army of the Potomac
Before Antietam
At graduation from West Point on 1 July 1842 he was appointed brevet 2nd Lieutenant, 2nd United States Artillery and served in garrisons in New England. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, 3rd US Artillery on 31 August 1844 and served in Texas and in the Mexican War (1846-48), aide de camp to Major General Patterson. He was promoted to First Lieutenant, First US Artillery on 3 March 1847 and was honored by brevet to Captain in April 1847 for his actions at Cerro Gordo, Mexico.
After the war he served in garrisons in Maryland and at the Schuylkill Arsenal, PA, and was Adjutant at the Military Academy (1850-53). He was appointed brevet Captain (Staff) and Assistant Adjutant General (AAG) on 16 August 1853 and was in staff jobs in New York and Washington, DC to the war.
He was promoted to brevet Major and AAG on 11 May 1861, and full rank Major and AAG on 3 August. He was appointed Brigadier General of Volunteers on 23 September and assigned as AAG to the Army of the Potomac. He was promoted in the Regular Army to Lieutenant Colonel and AAG on 17 July 1862.
On the Campaign
He was the Assistant Adjutant General of the Army of the Potomac (AOP) on the Campaign.
The rest of the War
He was with the AOP to 10 March 1864, then acting Inspector General to the Chief of Staff of the Army to February 1866. He was honored for his war service by brevets to Colonel, Brigadier General, and Major General, USA, and to Major General, Volunteers.
After the War
He was briefly AAG of the Division of the Atlantic at Philadelphia, PA to his death in Boston on his 44th birthday in 1866. Of his service with the Army of the Potomac Major General George Meade wrote of him:
to its officers and soldiers he was especially endeared by a never-failing patience and kindliness of heart that made no labor irksome that could promote their interests and welfare.
References & notes
His service from Cullum1 (his Cullum #1133), source also of the quote above. His picture from a photograph at the Library of Congress. His gravesite is on Findagrave.
Birth
03/22/1822; Augusta, ME
Death
03/22/1866; Boston, MA; burial in Forest Grove Cemetery, Augusta, ME
1 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, pp. 130-132 [AotW citation 30459]