Alpheus S . Williams Alpheus Starkey Williams ( September 29 , 1810 – December 21 , 1878 ) was a lawyer , judge , journalist , U . S . Congressman , and a Union general in the American Civil War . Early life . Williams was born in Deep River , Connecticut . He graduated from Yale University with a law degree in 1831 . His father , who died when Williams was eight years old , had left him a sizable inheritance , which he used between 1832 and 1836 for extensive travel in the United States and Europe . Upon his return , he settled in Detroit , Michigan , which was a booming frontier town in 1836 . He established himself as a lawyer and married the daughter of a prominent family , Jane Hereford , with whom he produced five children , two of whom died as infants . Jane herself died young as well , in 1849 , at the age of 30 . Williams had a variety of careers in Detroit . He was elected probate judge of Wayne County , Michigan ; in 1842 , president of the Bank of St . Clair ; in 1843 , the owner and editor of the Detroit " Advertiser " daily newspaper ; from 1849 to 1853 , postmaster of Detroit . When Williams arrived in Detroit in 1836 , he joined a company in the Michigan Militia and maintained a connection to the military activities of the city for years . In 1847 , he was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 1st Michigan Infantry destined for the Mexican - American War , but it arrived too late to see any action . He also served as the president of the state ' s military board and in 1859 was a major in the Detroit Light Guard . Civil War . At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 , Williams was involved in training the first army volunteers in the state . He was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on May 17 , 1861 . His first assignment after leaving the training camps was as a brigade commander in Maj . Gen . Nathaniel Banks ' s division of the Army of the Potomac , from October 1861 to March 1862 . He then assumed division command in the V Corps of the Army of the Potomac , as of March 13 , 1862 . This division was transferred to the Department of the Shenandoah from April to June of that year . Williams and Banks were sent to fight Maj . Gen . Thomas J . " Stonewall " Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley and were thoroughly outmaneuvered , allowing Jackson to bottle them up in the Valley with his much smaller force . On June 26 , Williams division was transferred to the Army of Virginia , under Maj . Gen . John Pope , for the Northern Virginia Campaign . In the Battle of Cedar Mountain , Banks ' s Corps was again up against Jackson , and was again defeated . Williams ' s division did not reach the Second Battle of Bull Run until after the battle was over . Williams ' s division rejoined the Army of the Potomac as the 1st Division of the XII Corps and marched north in the Maryland Campaign to the Battle of Antietam . On the way , troops from the division found the famous Confederate " lost dispatch , " Special Order 191 , that revealed Gen . Robert E . Lee ' s plan for the campaign and gave Maj . Gen . George B . McClellan key insights on how to defeat Lee ' s divided army . The division was heavily engaged at Sharpsburg , once again up against Jackson on the Confederate left flank . The corps commander , Maj . Gen . Joseph K . Mansfield , was killed early at Antietam , and Williams assumed temporary command . The corps suffered 25 % casualties in assaulting Jackson , and Brig . Gen . George S . Greene ' s division was forced to withdraw from its advanced position at the Dunker Church . Maj . Gen . Henry W . Slocum replaced Williams as permanent corps commander immediately after the battle . Williams ' s division missed the next major battle for the Army of the Potomac , the Battle of Fredericksburg , because it was engaged in defending the Potomac River in the Reserve . In the Battle of Chancellorsville , on May 2 , 1863 , Stonewall Jackson ' s corps executed a surprise flanking movement and smashed into the right flank of the Army of the Potomac , severely damaging the unsuspecting XI Corps . The neighboring division , under Williams , entrenched hastily and was able to stop the Confederate advance before it overran the entire army , but it suffered 1 , 500 casualties in the process . In the Battle of Gettysburg , Williams ' s division arrived on the battlefield late in the afternoon of July 1 , 1863 , and occupied Benner ' s Hill , east of the town of Gettysburg . On July 2 , the XII Corps took up positions on Culp ' s Hill , the right flank of the Union line . At this point , due to a command misunderstanding , Henry Slocum believed that he was in command of the " Right Wing " of the army , consisting of the XI and XII Corps . Therefore , Williams assumed temporary command of the XII Corps and controlled it for the rest of the battle . Brig . Gen . Thomas Ruger took command of Williams ' s division . On the afternoon of July 2 , a massive attack by Lt . Gen . James Longstreet on the Union ' s left flank caused army commander Maj . Gen . George G . Meade to order Williams to transfer his entire corps to reinforce the left , in the vicinity of Little Round Top . Williams convinced Meade of the importance of Culp ' s Hill and managed to retain one brigade , under Greene , in their defensive positions . In an heroic defense , Greene and his brigade withstood the assault of Maj . Gen . Edward " Allegheny " Johnson ' s Confederate division ( the " Stonewall Division " ) throughout the night , until the remaining brigades of the XII Corps returned . Early on July 3 , Williams launched an attack against the Confederates who had occupied some of the entrenchments on the hill and , after a seven - hour battle , regained his original line . Unfortunately for Williams , General Slocum was late in writing his official report of the battle , and Meade submitted his report for the army without acknowledging the critical contributions that Williams and XII Corps made to the Union defense . In September 1863 , the Union army in Tennessee was defeated at the Battle of Chickamauga and two corps were sent west to help them as they were besieged in Chattanooga — the XI and XII Corps . ( They later were combined due to their small sizes into a new XX Corps , Army of the Cumberland . ) Williams ' s division did not reach Chattanooga , but guarded railroads in eastern Tennessee . However , it did join Maj . Gen . William T . Sherman as part of XX Corps in the Atlanta Campaign and fought with distinction in a number of battles , particularly the Battle of Resaca . Williams was wounded in the arm at the Battle of New Hope Church on May 26 , 1864 . His division followed Sherman through his March to the Sea and the Carolinas Campaign . In these campaigns Williams lead XX Corps until , following the Battle of Bentonville , Joseph A . Mower was given command . Williams resumed leading his division . During this period , Williams received a brevet promotion to Major General on January 12 , 1865 . Horses . Throughout much of the war , Williams had two horses , one named Yorkshire and the other Plug Ugly . Yorkshire being more showy , Williams often preferred the larger Plug Ugly for more grueling duty . During the Battle of Chancellorsville , a Confederate shell landed in the thick mud underneath Plug Ugly , the subsequent explosion of which sent both horse and rider into the air . Remarkably , Williams was uninjured , and , perhaps most remarkably , the horse escaped with a few minor injuries . Plug Ugly eventually became too worn for further use , and in 1864 Williams sold him for $ 50 . Williams learned that the horse died not long after the sale . Postbellum . After the war , Williams served as a military administrator in southern Arkansas until he left the service on January 15 , 1866 . He returned to Michigan , but faced financial difficulties that forced him to take a post as the U . S . Minister at San Salvador , a position in which he served until 1869 . He ran for governor of Michigan in 1870 , but was not elected . Williams was elected as a Democrat to the 45th United States Congress from Michigan ' s 1st congressional district , serving from March 4 , 1875 , to December 21 , 1878 . For part of his time in congress he served as chairman of the Committee on the District of Columbia . Williams suffered a stroke on December 21 , 1878 , and died in the U . S . Capitol Building , and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit . Legacy . Williams was a general who never received much public recognition . Despite fighting in important commands , he remained a brigadier general throughout most of the war . There were three reasons likely for the situation : first , he was not a West Point graduate , and the " old boys network " was as effective in the 19th century as it is today ; second , during the formative months of the Army of the Potomac , Williams was stationed in the Shenandoah Valley , which denied him familiarity to the high command when reputations were being established ; third , Williams was never comfortable mastering the common practice of promoting himself to the public with the help of friendly newspaper correspondents . Williams did , however , communicate well with his family , and the letters he wrote throughout the war were saved and published posthumously in 1959 as the well regarded book , " From the Cannon ' s Mouth : The Civil War Letters of General Alpheus S . Williams " . Honors . An equestrian memorial to Williams by sculptor Henry Shrady stands in Belle Isle , in the Detroit River , next to his home town of Detroit . Williams Avenue in the Gettysburg National Military Park is named for him .