Thomas R. Williams was an antebellum United States Army officer and a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Background
Williams was born in 1815 in Albany, New New York His father was General John R. Williams, a five-term Mayor of Detroit and prominent military figure in Michigan. His mother was Mary Mott Williams of one of Albany"s leading families.
He began his military service in 1832 as a private in an infantry company during the Black Hawk War, serving as a trumpeter under his father"s command.
Education
The following year, Williams received an appointment to attend the United States Military Academy, then graduated in the Class of 1837 and he also taught mathematics at West Point in 1844.
Career
He was killed as he commanded the Union troops at the Battle of Baton Rouge. He was breveted as a second lieutenant of the 4th United States Artillery. He later served in the Seminole Wars as a first Lieutenant and Assistant Commissary of Substance.
Williams served in the Mexican War and was brevetted as a captain on August 20, 1847.
He was brevetted as a major on September 13, 1847, for "meritorious service" in the war. He was later assigned to posts in Florida and the Utah Territory.
By the late 1850s, he was serving as an instructor at the Artillery School at Fort Monroe in Virginia. Shortly after the Civil War began, Williams was promoted to major in the 5th United States Artillery on May 14, 1861.
On September 28, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln promoted Williams to Brigadier General of United States Volunteers, to rank from that date and on February 3, 1862, the United States. Senate confirmed his nomination.
He was posted to the command of a brigade on the Potomac River, and was later posted to Fort Hatteras, North Carolina. He then was assigned to Major General Benjamin Butler"s command in the land operations against New Orleans, Louisiana.
Williams and his brigade were assigned the task of occupying Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
On May 29, General Williams arrived in the city with six regiments of infantry, two artillery batteries, and a troop of cavalry. During the early summer, Williams" 3,000-man infantry brigade began work on what later became known as Grant"s Canal, cutting a new channel across the base of De Soto Point on the west side of the Mississippi River across from Vicksburg, Mississippi.
The purpose of the canal was to develop a channel for navigation that would enable gunboats and transports to bypass the Confederate batteries at Vicksburg. In August 1862, Confederate forces under the command of General
John C. Breckinridge attacked the Union defenses of Baton Rouge in an effort to retake the state"s capital.
Thomas Williams was killed by a gunshot wound to his chest while leading what proved to be the successful defense of the city. He was buried in the family plot in Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit, Michigan.