Jesse Milton Williams

He was one of at least 9 children of Lightfoot Williams, formerly of Alabama, who died about 1848 in DeSoto Parish, Louisiana, and was a substantial slaveholder. He enlisted and was commissioned Captain, Company D, 2nd Louisiana Infantry on 11 May 1861 in New Orleans and was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment on the reorganization of March 1862. He took command of the regiment after the battle of Malvern Hill on 1 July after Colonel Isaiah Norwood was mortally wounded. He was promoted to Colonel on 26 July 1862.

Colonel Williams was seriously wounded by a gunshot to the chest on the morning of 17 September, in combat near where General Starke was killed, and was captured there.

He was treated at a field hospital near Sharpsburg then briefly at US Army General Hospital #5 in Frederick, MD 12 - 13 October 1862. He was then transferred to Baltimore, probably for exchange. He returned to his regiment in March 1863. After Chancellorsville, in May 1863, he was appointed to command of the Brigade, and led it at Gettysburg in July. He was killed at Spotsylvania Court House, VA in May 1864.

His basic service from Booth.1 Wound and hospital details from the Patient List.2 Further information from the Louisiana Civil War Message Board by N. Wayne Cosby and slave inventory of the Williams family of 1848/56. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

01/11/1831

5/12/1864; Spotsylvania Court House, VA; burial in Stonewall Confederate Cemetery, Winchester, VA