Home | Williams, Alpheus Starkey
- CountryUS
- Town:MI Detroit
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Year of creation:1921
- Rider(s):Williams, Alpheus Starkey
(1810 –1878) was a lawyer, judge, journalist,U.S. Congressman, and a Union general in the American Civil War. 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.
- Sculptor(s):Shrady, Henry Merwin
(1871 –1922) was an American sculptor, best known for the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial on the west front of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.
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The following story about Alpheus Starkey Williams, a Union Major General, shows the status and the importance of the warhorse:
When riding into the key Civil War battles, Williams was riding Plug Ugly, a large warhorse that he preferred over a show horse named Yorkshire. The latter was his sports car; Plug Ugly was his Ford F-150. Williams wrote in a letter to his family that Plug Ugly “is admired by everybody and pronounced by all as the finest animal in the army.” In another letter he wrote that the horse “is a regular old soldier … For a year and a half we have been daily companions … I should grieve to part with old Plug Ugly.” Plug was injured several times in battle, even lost most of his tail, but he took a licking and kept on ticking, carrying Williams through Gettysburg.
