Adele Cutts Douglas-- Part 2: A Second Marriage

Adele was just twenty when she first met the widowed Stephen Douglas.  Though he was more than twice her age (she was born in 1835 and he was born in 1813) they courted briefly and were married in a Catholic ceremony in November 1856.

She had a transforming effect on the somewhat disheartened  Illinois senator and their house became a center for the Washington, D.C., social scene.

She was at his side during the famous Lincoln-Douglas Debates in Illinois and the presidential campaign that followed in 1860.

When Douglas died in Chicago in June 1861, Adele never entertained again and went into extended mourning.

Following the Civil War she met and married a Union career officer from Virginia named Robert Williams. (He was born in 1829) She then took on the life of an Army wife.

She had a miscarriage and lost a baby daughter when she was married to Douglas.  With Williams, she reared six children during his long career which ended in 1893 as Adjutant General of the Army.

Adele died at her home in Washington in January 1899 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

--Old Secesh