Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-08-09
STONEW STAFF,
RECENT DEATH OF A VERY
WORTHY MEMBER or 1T.
CAPTAIN WILLIAM G. WILLIAMSON.
,,ccdotes That lie Told About His
CencraI-Evidence That jackson
Did Offer Prayer Upon Going INFO
uo,tle-IncIdents OF the Civil War.

TO the Editor Of the Dispatch;
The memory Of Captain william Garnett
Williamson. who died near Pensacola,
Fla. on Tuesday, August 2, 1898. and was
,,,-iea In Lexington, Va. on the following
,-,ursday morning. demands a fuller and
,,ore generous treatment than the brief
,o,ico I'm the Dispatch OF the 5th instant.
capfain williamson, the eldest son OF
General Thomas Hoomes Williamson and
henrietta T. Garnett was born in Nor
.,ft Va. December 13. 1910. Both Of
Dis parents were OF English ancestry; his
f.fber was born In Richmond. and re-
sta1 I'm Norfolk; was educated at the
r-,tod states Military Academy. 1929
*. and In 1871 was appointed Professor
~ civil and Military Engineering at the
virginia Military Institute, at Lexington.
Ills mother was born either in Essex or
E.,g and Queen county, as her father,
colonel William Garnett, owned a planta-
,.r and lived I'm each Of these counties.
CAPTAIN williamson grew up in Lex
,orfon. whittier he was taken as an in
t.,t and was there educated at Wash
t,.,..p College. now Washington and Lee
1.-.,ers.ty. from which he graduated in
1.fy 1859. and at once began the prac-
,..s NJ civil engineering. as a leveller on
... ,-a Northeast and Southwest Alabama
rsrroad. under Robert f.. Rodes (who sub
,.,Yanry became a major-general in the
Confederate army, as chief engineer;
+..o for two or three months he taught
school in Loundsboro', Ala. but when
that state seeded he resigned his posi-
zion and returned TO Virginia. where he
Joined the Rockbridge Artillery, raised
ig Lexington by Captain w. n. Pendle-
ION Rev DR.. Pcndleton, Of Grace church,
Lexington. Va, at that time, and sub
se9uently General Lees chief Of artillery.
Army Of Northern virginia., and was
mustered in as a private in that com
uauy at Stanton, on the 18th of May,
1861. and marched across the Blue Ridge
with his company TO Manassas Junction,
and thence 10 Join Jackson at Harpers
Ferry. He participated in the hrst pat
lie Of Bull Run, or Manassas, with his
which was attached to the
"StonewalI" Brigade. and bore its fun
share I'm the hotly-contested and famous
combat on the Henry Plateau.
After the battle OF Manassas. while
bis battery was in camp at Fairfax
he was detailed on engineer
ing duty and ordered to report to his
father Lieutenant-COlOnel T. H. VIII
hanson. then in charge OF the construc-
ton Of field works around Manassas
Junction. and assisted in laying out those
planned works and in super
sisug the parties constructing them.
Later ne was engaged on the same kind
III work al Cenreville. under Captain
y. b. Harris, of the Confederate States
Engineers.
AFTER LEESBURG.
After the battle of Leesburg, october
d. 1851. he was ordered to report TO Gene
-al ID. II. Hin for duty, and was engaged
II constructing Fort Evans and other de-
fences in front of Leesburg. When Gene
'al Hin left Leesburg Williamson was
ordered back 20 his company, the Rock
bridge Artillery with which he served
Turing Jackson's Valley campaign and
through the seven days. or Richmond,
I'm 1862. until after the battle OF
Malvern Hill. Prior TO that battle he had
Jeen commissioned second lieutenant in
he provisional army OF the Confederate
states. but had not received his commits
sion. Colonel A. $. Pendleton. JaCkson's
assistant adiutant-general, informed him
lf this appointment as his battery was
going into action at Malvern Hin, but he
continued with IT and served as mo. 1"
AZ a rifle piece during that hotly-contested
battle.
After Malvern Hill General Jackson
gave him leave 10 go to Richmond to see
about his commission and get orders. The
mad been sent TO Jacksons
but mislaid bat he was or
iered to report 10 General Jackson. whose
army ne followed to the Cedar Run cam
paign and Joined him near the Kappa
hammock during the Pope campaign. Not
having yet procured a horse so that he
could ride on stan duty with Jackson, he
marched on with the Rockbridge Artil
cry. and. like a brave and true soldier,
erved as mo. !" at one Of its rife pieces
n the engagement at Manassas Junction
August q. 1862. While there, for having
lad some hot words with the major COM
handing the battalion of artillery, ne
vas put under arrest and so prevented
rom participating in the second battle
Il Manassas. and did not Join Jackson
NTH just before the crossing into Mary
and. The major of artillery, who, like
was little deaf. when VII
conduct had been explained TO
i'm by the officers of the battery, made
n ample apology and released him from
rrest
While Jackson was encamped at Frede-
lex City he sent Williamson to report 10
Lieutenant Sneed and assist in destroying
be Baltimore and Ohio railroad bridge
YER the Monocacy. at Frederick Junction.
.fter giving him his orders, Jackson, who
adj been a Professor Of Mechanical Phi
isophy "a the Virginia Military Institute,
aid 10 him: III you wanted to blow
own a pier, where would you put the
last or charger" Williamson answered.
In the top" knowing that he could not
10 al IL anywhere else. Jackson imme-
lately replied: mo, sir; in the bottom"
his, Of course. was. theoretically and me-
true, but in the case in ques-
ION. under the circumstances, imprac-
cable Williamson did not stop to argue
be question, but went on ana helped TO
lrOw down the bridge, which was ac-
lmplished by the suggestion OF the writer
lat the hollow iron posts of the truss
ildge be filled with gunpOWder and eX-
.oded, thus throwing the bridge into a
ainging wreck. which was more difficult
D remove than If the piers had been
.own up.
JACKSON AT PRAYER.
During the Harper's Ferry campaign,
be following September. Williamson as
sted in destroying the Baltimore and
Mo railroad bridge at Harpers Ferry,
zen rejoined jackson, just before the
my crossed the Potomac. after the bat
@ Of Sharpsburg, and was with him in
r.h =.