The Colonel and Stephen Douglas' Widow-- Part 1

From the July 2021 America's Civil War magazine "Love in the Ruins."

As I said before, I sure miss this magazine.

Colonel Robert Williams, the first commander of the 1st Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry, usually did not get along with his men.  

At the time he became the commander, it was customary for men to elect  their company and field commanders.  Williams, a strict disciplinarian-- and Virginian by birth-- was not a natural fit for the New Englanders of his regiment.  And, making matters worse, Williams was not picked by the men of the 1st.  (More on this later.)

But, he was a professional soldier and had served for a decade in the Army on the western frontier. 

Despite discord in the ranks, he stayed with the regiment during early campaigning in South Carolina and its transfer to the Army of the Potomac in August 1862.  At Antietam, however, Williams complained  that he had been the victim of an unspecified injustice.

He resigned his colonel's commission and returned to the Adjutant General's department in Washington, D.C., which had been his previous posting.

--Old Secesh