American diplomat
William Woods Averell
(November 5, 1832 – February 3, 1900) was a career
United States Army
officer and a
cavalry
general
in the
American Civil War
. He was the only Union general to achieve a major victory against the Confederates in the
Valley Campaigns of 1864
prior to the arrival of
Philip Sheridan
, at the
Battle of Rutherford's (Carter's) Farm
and at the
Battle of Moorefield
.
After the war, Averell was appointed by President
Andrew Johnson
as a diplomat to British North America, serving 1866 to 1869. Also an entrepreneur and inventor with interests in the coal, steel and related infrastructure industry, Averell became wealthy by inventing an improved technique for laying
asphalt
pavement.
He co-wrote a history of the Third Pennsylvania Cavalry, Sixtieth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers during the Civil War years; it was published in 1905. He wrote a memoir of his Army years from 1851-1862 but did not publish it and the manuscript was lost for a time. It was discovered in the late 20th century and published in an annotated edition in 1978.
Early years
[
edit
]
Averell was born in
Cameron, New York
.
[1]
As a boy, he worked as a drugstore clerk in the nearby town of
Bath
.
[1]
He graduated from the
United States Military Academy
at
West Point
in 1855 and was commissioned a
second lieutenant
in the U.S. Army Mounted Rifles. His early assignments included garrison duty at
Jefferson Barracks
,
Missouri
, and the U.S. Army Cavalry School in
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
.
[1]
During two years of service in
New Mexico
, he was wounded in action against the
Indians
in October 1858, and was placed on the disabled list until the outbreak of the Civil War.
[1]
Civil War
[
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]
After the capture of
Fort Sumter
, Lt. Averell made a risky solo journey across the country to the
Indian Territory
with a message to summon his old mounted rifle regiment to the East to join the fighting.
[2]
Averell first saw action at the
First Battle of Bull Run
while acting as assistant adjutant general to
Brig. Gen.
Andrew Porter
.
[1]
In August 1861, he was appointed
colonel
of the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry regiment,
[1]
[3]
which he led through the
Peninsula Campaign
and the
Seven Days Battles
. Immediately after that campaign, on July 6, 1862, he was given command of the 1st Cavalry Brigade in the
Army of the Potomac
. He missed the
Battle of Antietam
and most of the
Maryland Campaign
as he recovered from a bout of
malaria
; this was known at the time as "Chickahominy Fever".
As
Confederate
Maj. Gen.
J.E.B. Stuart
's cavalry rode around the Union Army and raided
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania
, Averell returned in time to lead his brigade in pursuit.
President
Abraham Lincoln
appointed Averell a brigadier general of volunteers on September 26, 1862 to rank from that date.
[4]
Lincoln had to nominate Averell three times before the
U.S. Senate
confirmed the appointment on March 11, 1863.
[4]
During the
Battle of Fredericksburg
, Averell commanded the Cavalry Brigade of the Center Grand Division of the Army of the Potomac. He ascended to
division
command—the 2nd division of the Cavalry Corps—on February 12, 1863. His division fought the
Battle of Kelly's Ford
on March 17, 1863, notable as the first engagement in which Union cavalrymen claimed victory against their Confederate counterparts. But the 2nd Division's reputation was diminished as it participated in
Maj. Gen.
George Stoneman
's fruitless cavalry raid in the
Battle of Chancellorsville
six weeks later. On May 2, 1863, Union Army commander Maj. Gen.
Joseph Hooker
relieved Averell of his command due to his slow performance during the raid. Hooker subsequently sent a report to the Adjutant General that said: "General Averell's command numbered about 4,000 sabers and a light battery, a larger cavalry force than can be found in the rebel army between Fredericksburg and Richmond, and yet that officer seems to have contented himself between April 29th, and May 4th, with having marched through Culpeper to Rapidan, a distance of twenty-eight miles, meeting no enemy deserving the name, and from that point reporting to me for instructions."
[5]
Averell left the Army of the Potomac after his relief at Chancellorsville. He fought a series of minor engagements in the Department of West Virginia at the brigade and division level. In November 1863, he conducted what is called Averell's West Virginia Raid against the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad. He received a brevet promotion to
lieutenant colonel
in the regular army for the
Battle of Droop Mountain
in West Virginia on November 6, 1863, and to colonel for actions at
Salem, Virginia
, on December 15, 1863. In the spring of 1864, he led another cavalry raid toward Saltville but was stopped by Confederate generals
John Hunt Morgan
and
William E. "Grumble" Jones
at Cove Gap in the
Battle of Cove Mountain
. Returning to West Virginia, Averell later commanded a cavalry division under Maj. Gen.
David Hunter
in his failed raid on
Lynchburg
, known as the
Battle of Lynchburg
.
In the summer of 1864, when CSA
Lt. Gen.
Jubal Early
had invaded Maryland and defeated a series of Union commanders, Averell proved to be the only Union commander to achieve victory against the Confederates in the Shenandoah Valley before the arrival of
Philip Sheridan
. He routed Confederate Maj. Gen.
Stephen D. Ramseur
at the
Battle of Rutherford's (Carter's) Farm
on July 20, 1864, inflicting 400 casualties and capturing a four-gun battery, in spite of Averell's being significantly outnumbered. When CSA Brig. Gen.
John McCausland
burned
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania
, to the ground on July 30, Averell tracked him down near
Moorefield, West Virginia
.
Using
scouts disguised as Confederates
in his vanguard, Averell routed McCausland in a sunrise attack upon the Confederate camp,
[6]
capturing hundreds of prisoners and another four-gun battery in the
Battle of Moorefield
.
During the
Valley Campaigns of 1864
against Early, Averell fought under Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan. He was relieved of command a second time in his career on September 23, 1864, following a dispute with Sheridan about Averell's actions after the
Battle of Fisher's Hill
. This incident truly devastated him and he could not hide his misery. A staff officer wrote "I saw General Averell sitting in front of his tent ... He was dreadfully depressed and broken. I believe he started for the rear within a few moments after we left him, and never was employed again during the war." Averell resigned from the Union Army volunteers and from the U.S.
regular army
on May 18, 1865.
[7]
On July 17, 1866, President
Andrew Johnson
nominated Averell for appointment to the grades of
brevet
brigadier general
and
brevet
major general
in the regular army, to rank from March 13, 1865. The U.S. Senate confirmed the appointments on July 23, 1866.
[8]
[9]
The latter appointment was in recognition of Averell's actions at the
Battle of Kelly's Ford
.
Postbellum career
[
edit
]
Following the Civil War, President Johnson appointed Averell as U.S.
consul general
to
British North America
; he served from 1866 to 1869, through the rest of that administration.
[1]
In 1888, during
Grover Cleveland
's presidency, Averell was reinstated in the Army by a special Act of Congress and placed upon the retired list; he was also appointed as Assistant Inspector General of Soldiers Homes (1888-1898).
[10]
Averell was an entrepreneur and an inventor, working in the fields of coal, steel and eventually paving materials. His businesses and his inventions of practical devices generated a handsome income. Among his inventions were methods for manufacturing steel castings and insulated electrical cable, but he is best known for his work in techniques of laying asphalt pavement. Averell had become interested in asphalt as early as 1870, when some experimental pavement, based on the procedures patented by
Edward de Smedt
, a Belgian engineer and chemist, was laid in New York City and
Newark, New Jersey
. Although Averell observed problems with these installations, he was convinced of the potential of asphalt paving. As president of the Grahamite Asphalt Pavement Company, he began studying the existing product and procedures and experimenting with ways to improve them. Eventually, he developed improved techniques for laying pavement, which he patented in 1878 as "Improvement in Asphaltic Pavement."
[10]
Averell was among career officers who wrote memoirs and histories of military units: he wrote
Ten Years in the Saddle
(1978)
[11]
and co-authored
History of the Third Pennsylvania Cavalry, 60th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers
(1905).
[12]
Both books were published posthumously. The manuscript for his memoir was not discovered until the later 20th century, and it was published in an annotated edition.
Death, legacy and honors
[
edit
]
General Averell died in
Bath, New York
, and is buried there.
[1]
- In 1976, Averell was one of the first class of ten inductees for the Steuben County (NY) Hall of Fame.
[13]
- Averell Street in Winchester, Virginia, to mark the area where his former troops went into winter quarters in 1864.
[14]
See also
[
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]
Notes
[
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]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
Who Was Who in American History - the Military
. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who. 1975. p. 20.
ISBN
0837932017
.
- ^
https://www.wadeburleson.org/2009/09/listen-my-friends-and-i-will-tell-of.html
- ^
Combined Military Service Record
- ^
a
b
Eicher, John H., and
David J. Eicher
,
Civil War High Commands.
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001.
ISBN
0-8047-3641-3
. p. 717.
- ^
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2001.05.0292%3Achapter%3D1.21%3Asection%3Dc.1.21.63%3Apage%3D209
- ^
Steelhammer, Rick (August 7, 2014).
"Moorefield attack 150 years ago 'had very damaging effect' on Confederate campaign"
.
Charleston Gazette-Mail
. Retrieved
May 11,
2023
.
- ^
Eicher, 2001, p. 110.
- ^
Eicher, 2001, p. 731.
- ^
Eicher, 2001, p. 706.
- ^
a
b
"William Woods Averell Papers, 1836-1910 (finding aid)"
.
New York State Library web site
.
New York State Library
. Retrieved
December 1,
2014
.
- ^
Averell, William Woods, edited by Edward K. Eckert and Nicholas J. Amato.
Ten Years in the Saddle: The Memoir of William Woods Averell (1851-1862)
. San Rafael, Calif: Presidio Press, 1978.
ISBN
0891410244
OCLC
3710996
- ^
United States.
History of the Third Pennsylvania Cavalry, Sixtieth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, in the American Civil War, 1861-1865
. Philadelphia: Franklin Printing Company, 1905.
- ^
Steuben County Hall of Fame booklet, published by County Historian, 1976
- ^
House, Kirk, "Steuben County People on the Maps of Two Worlds,"
Steuben Echoes
44:4, November 2018, page 9.
References
[
edit
]
- Eicher, John H., and
David J. Eicher
.
Civil War High Commands
. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001.
ISBN
0-8047-3641-3
.
- Longacre, Edward G.
Lincoln's Cavalrymen: A History of the Mounted Forces of the Army of the Potomac
. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2000.
ISBN
0-8117-1049-1
.
- Warner, Ezra J.
Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders
. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1964.
ISBN
0-8071-0822-7
.
- Who Was Who in American History - the Military
. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who. 1975.
ISBN
0837932017
.
External links
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