From the Cannon's Mouth: The Civil War Letters of General Alpheus S. Williams

by Milo Milton Quaife (Editor), Gary W. Gallagher (Introduction)

Fifty-one years old when the Civil War broke out, Alpheus S. Williams was commissioned brigadier general of volunteers in the Army of the Potomac. These letters to his daughters, written in the most rigorous wartime circumstances, reveal the high-ranking officer's views on events from Bull Run to Georgia and the Carolinas to Gettysburg. He characterizes McClellan, Sherman, Hooker, and Meade; scorns a system of promotion that rewards grandstanders and press-kissers; and explodes in fury at the contractors whose graft cheats the soldiers of blankets and shoes in midwinter. He pities the people and animals thrust in the path of the cannon and is acutely attuned to the weather and landscape. Every line by Williams is stamped with intelligence and sensibility, and his combatant's view of the battle at Antietam is the most stirring in Civil War literature.

Genres: American Civil War

413 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1995

About the author

Milo Milton Quaife (1880–1959) was a historian of Michigan and the Great Lakes region.

Quaife was born in Nashua, Iowa. He received his education at Grinnell College, the University of Missouri and the University of Chicago. He was head of the Wisconsin Historical Society and later secretary-editor at the Detroit Public Library's Burton Collection. He was also a lecturer at Wayne State University and the University of Detroit. He served as editor of the Lakeside Classics historical series from 1916 to 1957.

Reviews

[Jim]

Civil War Magazine listed this book as one of the 100 best Civil War books for good reason. This collection of his letters, mostly to his daughters, is remarkably well written & very candid. His description of the Battle of Chancellorsville alone is worth the price of the book.



Alpheus Williams lived in Detroit before the war (his statue is on Belle Isle). He had a solid combat record and the respect of his soldiers as a brigade, division & sometimes corps commander in the XII Corps in the Eastern Theater (1862 Valley Campaign, Cedar Mountain, Antietam, Chancellorsille, Gettysburg) before heading to the Western Theater where he accompanied Sherman in the Atlanta campaign and the March to the Sea.



Despite his record, Alpheus Willliams remained a Brigadier General until he finally received a brevet promotion to Major General at the end of the war. He was understandably bitter about his failure to be promoted. Here's a quote: "The whole system of promotion is by the practice of a low grovelling lick-spittle subserving and pandering to the press, who can lie you into the favor and notice of the war authorities. I might stay a long life in hard service, as I have done for over three years, and I never could seek the polluted steps to preferment and should never reach it."



Why wasn't he promoted? Did he fail to confine his feelings to his private letters? How did his letters get past the censors? His democratic politics and conservative views on how to wage the war surely didn't win him any friends in Washington. Being a commander under Nathaniel Banks & John Pope early in the war probably didn't help either. These are all good questions that should be answered by a modern biography.