W. C. Wickham

Confederate (CSV)

Colonel

Williams Carter Wickham

(1820 - 1888)

Home State: Virginia

Education: University of Virginia, Class of 1842

Command Billet: Commanding Regiment

Branch of Service: Cavalry

Unit: 4th Virginia Cavalry

Before Sharpsburg

Addmitted to the bar in 1842, he practiced law and then became a planter. He was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1849; was presiding justice of the county court of Hanover county for many years. In 1858 he was commissioned Captain of Virginia volunteer cavalry ("Hanover Dragoons"), and in 1859 was elected to the State Senate.

In September 1861 he was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel of the 4th Virginia Cavalry. On May 4, 1862, he received a severe saber wound in a cavalry charge at Williamsburg, which prevented him from participating in the battles around Richmond. While wounded he was taken prisoner at his home on McClellan's advance, paroled, and speedily exchanged by special cartel for his wife's kinsman, Lieut. Col. Thomas L. Kane, of the Pennsylvania "Bucktails." In August, 1862, he was commissioned Colonel of the Fourth.

On the Campaign

He commanded the regiment in Maryland.

The rest of the War

He was wounded in the neck by a pice of shell at Upperville, VA on 3 November 1862. He was elected to the Confederate Congress from the Richmond district shortly after the battle of Chancellorsville, but he remained in the army, leaving his seat in Congress vacant (until the fall of 1864). On September 9, 1863, he was commissioned Brigadier-General in command of a brigade in Fitzhugh Lee's division.

After considerable combat in Virginia through the remainder of 1863 and 64, he resigned his commission on October 5, 1864, transferred his command to General Rosser, and took his seat in Congress when the session opened.

After the War

In November, 1865, he was elected president of the Virginia Central railroad company; in November, 1868, president of the Chesapeake & Ohio railroad company, and in 1869 was made vice-president of the company with C. P. Huntington as president, and continued as such until 1875, when he was appointed its receiver, which position he held until July 1, 1878, when he became its second vice-president and so continued until his death. In 1883, he was again elected to the Virginia State Senate.

References & notes

Source: Confederate Military History, Vol. III, pp. 685-689, extracted online at the Virginia Civil War page.