2nd United States Sharpshooters - POW & Twice Wounded

Item CDV-11390

Description

2nd United States Sharpshooters
1st New York Light Artillery
1st Battalion Nevada Cavalry
Wounded Surgeon at 1st Manassas
Alfred A. C. Williams
Assistant Surgeon, Surgeon & Lieutenant Colonel
Backmark: Washington, DC
Signed and dated in period ink

In November of 1860, Alfred Augustus Crawford Williams, a young man of 20 years, had just graduated from Berkshire College as a medical doctor, having attended Union College from 1854 - 1858. In early April of 1861 he was a prosector at Brunswick College, had his passport in hand, and was planning to traveling to Europe at the close of the term to further his education in anatomy. Fate had different plans for AACW.
 
By June 3, 1861 he is listed as an Assistant Surgeon in the 1st New York Light Artillery. He volunteered to leave his unit and go with the 11th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, the Fire Zouaves, and found himself wounded and captured by the Confederates at First Bull Run, and sent to Salisbury Prison in North Carolina. He is aboard the Adelaide steamer that arrived in Baltimore on August 20, 1862 along with other released prisoners. By May of 1863 he is reported to be wounded , "by a ball passing through his arm", at Chancellorsville and receives a letter of commendation from his Commander Col. H. Berdan. Berdan stated that even though wounded "he did not leave his duties for a moment." By August 10, 1863, Col. Berdan is sending a letter of "Medical Department" to AACW stating, with regrets, that he can no longer remain in the field with the unit due to his latest wound. 
 
October 9, 1863 AACW is before a board, in San Francisco, answering questions and taking the oath as he enlists in the Nevada Territory Volunteers, as a Lieut. Colonel and is posted to Fort Churchill, Nevada. (His father, Gen. C. H. S. Williams, was a prominent lawyer in San Francisco at the time.) Throughout the rest of 1863 and into 1864 we find "Post Reports" where he is posted to Camp Douglas in Utah as a surgeon, and given command of Fort Bridger. In November of 1864 letters are being written to the territorial commander stating AACW has been found "in a state of degraded drunkness" outside the Gem Saloon in Salt Lake City, where he refuses help returning to his quarters, "and not for the first time." December 8, 1864 he is asked to resign and AACW tenders his letter of resignation, which is accepted by the commander of Headquarters, Department of the Pacific, San Francisco, California, on December 21, 1864. 

Contributor: Sons of Union Veterans Camp #124 (50680078)