Biography
Revised Roster article.
William Wells
Brigadier and Brevet Major-General
United States Volunteers
1837-1892
William Wells was born in Waterbury, Vermont, December 14, 1873. He was of a good English family, being the seventh in direct descent from Hugh Wells.
Hugh Wells was born, about 1590, in the county of Essex, England. He was married in 1619, and emigrated to America in 1635. He remained in Boston for a time, and subsequently aided in founding a colony in Hartford, Connecticut. He died in Weathersfield, Connecticut, in 1645.
Thomas Wells, the first child of Hugh Wells, was born in Colchester, England, in 1602, and was taken with his parents, in 1635, to America. In 1651 he married Mary Beardsley, of Weathersfield, Connecticut, daughter of William Beardsley, of England. In 1659 he went to Hadley, and lived there until his death, in 1676.
Ebenezer Wells, eleventh child of Thomas Wells, was born at Hadley, Massachusetts, July 4, 1686, and died at Hatfield, Massachusetts. His second child, Dr. Thomas Wells, was born at Greenfield, Massachusetts, September 25, 1693, and died at Deerfield, Massachusetts, March 7, 1745. The third child of Dr. Wells, Joseph Wells, born in Deerfield, Massachusetts, October 8, 1731, died at Greenfield, December 22, 1804. The fifth child of Joseph, Roswell Wells, was born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, September 9, 1769, and in 1805 moved to Waterbury, where he died July 26, 1826, aged fifty-seven years. His wife was Pamelia White, a descendant of Peregrine White, the first white child of civilized parentage born in New England. Of this marriage were born two children, William Wellington and Roswell Wells.
The Honorable William Wellington Wells was born in Waterbury, October 28, 1805, and died at the same place April 9, 1869. He was a man of liberal education, excellent business qualifications, and sterling character. He was graduated from the University of Vermont in 1824, and studied law in the office of Charles Adams, Esq., in Burlington. He was admitted to practice at the Chittenden County Bar, but before he began the practice of his profession (for which he was thought to be particularly well suited both by nature and education), owing to the death of his father, he was obliged to return to Waterbury and administer the estate of the deceased. He soon became so much interested in business pursuits that he abandoned the ide a of a professional life and identified himself with the interests of both his family and his town, and was numbered among the most successful men of affairs in the State.
Mr. Wells represented Waterbury in the Legislature in 1840, 1863, and 1864, where he took an active part in legislative matters. He was a member of the Eleventh Council of Censors in 1855, and town treasurer and selectman several years.
He was deeply interested in the welfare of his country, and when the Rebellion broke out, and during its continuance, he gave himself almost entirely to his country's service with an enthusiasm and hopefulness that was an inspiration to all around him. As chairman of the board of selectmen during the greater part, if not the whole, of the war, he was the strongest among the strong. There was no call for soldiers that was not promptly filled. He fully believed that it was for the town's best interest to "pay as it went, " so that Waterbury was subsequently free from debt at the close of the war.
Mr. Wells lived in the faith that work was honorable, and his whole life conformed to his faith; his boys, too, having been reared in this faith, have cheerfully and faithfully followed him in faith and practice.
Mr. Wells was married to Miss Eliza Carpenter, second daughter of Judge Dan Carpenter, January 13, 1831. This choice of a wife was a most fortunate one for him, as his subsequent life demonstrated. They buried two children in infancy, but reared seven sons and one daughter. Roswell White Wells was born November 14, 833, died February 4, 1883. Edward Wells, born October 30, 1835, died February 19, 1907. William Wells, born December 14, 1873, died April 29, 1892. Curtis Wells, born February 1, 1840, died March 16, 1898. Charles Wells, born Jun 22, 1845, . Sarah Carpenter Wells, born June 22, 1845. Henry Wells, born February 15, 1848, died January 7, 1911. Frederick Howard, born September 27, 1851. Mrs. Wells survived her husband four years and died August 5, 1873.
Four of the sons, Edward, William, Curtis, and Charles, served in the Union Army.
William Wells began his education in the common schools of his native town, and mastered the higher branches in Barre, Vermont Academy, and Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, New Hampshire. While in Barre he performed a remarkable piece of work, using an odometer in surveying for a county map of Caledonia County, a task which occupied him for two months in his seventeenth year. From the age of nineteen until the spring of 1861 he was his father's assistant in his extensive business. After the outbreak of the Rebellion, he, with three of his brothers, became a soldier of the army of the Union.
September 9, 1861, at the age of twenty-three, he enlisted as a private soldier, and assisted in raising Company C, First Regiment, Vermont Cavalry; was sworn into the United States service October 3, 1861; was commissioned First Lieutenant October 14, 1861; mustered November 19, 1861, with the Field and Staff of the First Regiment, Vermont Cavalry, to serve for three years. He was commissioned Major December 30, 1862 and was mustered the same date. Through the recommendation of all the officers of his regiment he was commissioned Colonel June 4, 1864, and mustered July 2, 1864. He was appointed Brevet Brigadier-General of Volunteers February 22, 1865, and Brevet Major-General, "for gallant and meritorious service, " March 13, 1865. In recognition of his brilliant services, and upon the recommendation of General Sheridan and General Custer, he was commissioned Brigadier-General May 19, 1865, having received more promotions than any other Vermont officer during the war.
He was place in command of the Seventh Regiment, Michigan Cavalry, March 2, 1864, by order of General Judson Kilpatrick, while near Richmond, Virginia, on what is known as Kilpatrick's Raid, and continued in command of the regiment for several weeks. He was in command of his regiment from June 4, 1864, as Major on Wilson's raid south of Richmond. He was in command of this regiment from date of muster as Colonel until September 19, 1864, at which date he assumed command of the Second Brigade, Third Division Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac. He commanded this brigade at the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, at Appomattox, Virginia, April 9, 1865, and until May 22, 1865, when he assumed command of the Third Cavalry Division. From September 19, 1864 to April 9, 1865, he was several times in command of the Third Cavalry Division. The departure of Sheridan and Custer for Texas left him as the ranking officer of the cavalry corps, which he commanded from June 1 to June 24, 1865. He was the last commander of General Sheridan's Corps. He was in command of the First Separate Brigade, Twenty-second Army Corps, from June 24, 1865, to July 24, 1865. He was mustered out of the service January 15, 1866, by General Order 168, War Department, Washington, D. C., dated December 28, 1865.
He distinguished himself repeatedly in action. He was in the thickest of the fight at Orange Court House, Virginia, August 2, 1862, and commanded the Second Battalion, First Vermont Cavalry, in the repulse of Stuart's Cavalry at Hanover, Pennsylvania, June 30, 1863. In the famous and desperate cavalry charge on Round Top, Gettysburg, July 3, 1863, he commanded the leading battalion, rode by the side of General Farnsworth, the brigade command, and, almost by miracle, came out unharmed, while his commander fell in the midst of the enemy's infantry. This charge penetrated the enemy's lines for about three quarters of a mile. A few days later, in the savage cavalry melee at Boonsboro', Maryland, he was wounded by a sabre cut. At Culpeper Court House, Va., September 13, 1863, he charged the enemy's artillery with his regiment and captured a gun, and was again wounded by a shell. He was a prisoner of war in Libby Prison, Richmond, Virginia, from March 17, 1863, to about May 6, 1863.
He commanded a battalion in Sheridan's Cavalry Corps at the battle of Yellow Tavern, Virginia, May 11, 1864, in which General Stuart, the greatest Confederate cavalry general, was killed. In the cavalry fight at Tom's Brook, Virginia, October 9, 1864, General Wells commanded a brigade of Custer's DIvision; and at Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864, his brigade took a foremost part in turning the rout of the morning into a decisive victory at nightfall, capturing forty-five of the forty-eight pieces of artillery taken from Early's fleeing army, the First Vermont capturing twenty-three of these, the heaviest capture ever made by one regiment in the war. Major Wells served under Generals Kilpatrick Sheridan, and Custer, and was with Kilpatrick in his famous raid on Richmond, and with General Wilson in his daring foray to the south of that city. At Appomattox, on the morning of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, his brigade had started on its last charge and was stopped by General Custer in person.
At the grand review of the Army of the Potomac in Washington City, May 22, 1865, he commanded the Second Brigade of Custer's Division of the Cavalry Corps, which led the advance. A medal of honor was awarded General Wells by Congress "for distinguished gallantry at the battle of Gettysburg, July 3, 1863."
During his services with the First Regiment Cavalry he took part in the following battles and skirmishes: Middletown, Winchester, Luray Court House, Culpeper Court House, Orange Court House, Kelley's Ford, Waterloo Bridge, Bull Run, Warrenton, HAnover, Hunterstown, Gettysburg, Monterey, Leitersville, Hagerstown, Boonsboro', Hagerstown, Falling Waters, Port Conway, Port Conway, Culpeper Court House, Somerville Ford, Raccoon Ford, James City, Brandy Station, Gainesville, Buckland Mils, Falmouth, Morton's Ford, Mechanicsville, Piping Tree, Craig's Meeting House, Spotsylvania, Yellow Tavern, Meadow Bridge, Hanover Court House, Ashland, Hawe's Shop, Bottom Bridge, White Oak Swamp, Riddle's Shop, Malvern Hill, Ream's Station, Nottoway Court House, Roanoke Station, Stony Creek, Ream's Station, Winchester, Summit Point, Charlestown, W. Va., Kearneysville, and Opequon or Winchester.
As Brigade and Division Commander he participated in the following battles and skirmishes: Opequon, Front Royal, Gooney Manor Grade, Milford, Waynesboro, Columbia Furnace, Toms Brook, Cedar Creek, Cedar Creek, Middle Road, Middle and Back Road or Middletown, Lacey's Springs, Waynesboro, Five Forks, Scott's Corners, Namozine Creek, Winticomack, Appomattox Stations and Appomattox Court House.
His military career may be summarized by saying that he participated in seventy cavalry engagements, in eighteen of which he led a brigade or division, and her service in the field was continuous from the date of his muster-in until the close of the war. January 15, 1866, he was honorably mustered out of the United States service, having been held in useful service for eight months after the war ended, a fine testimonial to his soldierly ability. The official record speaks for itself, and General Wells's military career throughout four years and a half in the War of the Rebellion evinces the highest personal qualities of a cavalry commander, combining coolness, promptness, and daring intrepidity with most thoughtful consideration for his men.
General Wells was married, January 18, 1866, to Miss Arahanna Richardson, who was born July 20, 1845, in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. To them were born two children, Franklin Richardson and Bertha Richardson. Frank Richardson Wells was born, February 1, 1871, in Burlington, Vermont, and was married, in California, November 7, 1900, to Miss Jean Mary Hush, of Oakland, California. Bertha Richardson Wells was born April 23, 1873, and was married in Burlington, Vermont, July 6, 1899, to Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson, of Burlington, Vermont. Mrs. Wells died suddenly in Burlington, Vermont, June 12, 1905.
Soon after General Wells's return to civil life he became a partner in a firm of wholesale druggists at Waterbury. In 1868 they transferred this business to Burlington, which was thereafter his residence. He represented the town of Waterbury in the Legislature in 1865-66, being chairman of the military committee and an influential legislator. In 1866 he was elected Adjutant-General of Vermont, and held the officer until 1872, when he was appointed Collector of Customs for the District of Vermont, a position which he filled with efficiency and credit for thirteen years. The Burlington Free Press of that year, in speaking of his appointment as Collector of Customs, said: "For several years past General Wells has been a resident of this city, Burlington, and a member of the firm of Henry and Co., wholesale drug merchants. His personal standing is high, as a man of integrity, good sense, correct habits, and unblemished character, and his appointment will be generally accepted throughout the State as one eminently 'fit to be made.'" At the end of that time he resumed his active connection with the business house known the world over as the Wells and Richardson Company.
In 1886 he was State Senator from the county of Chittenden. He was active in veteran soldiers' societies, was one of the presidents of the Reunion society of Vermont Officers, and president of the Society of the First Vermont Cavalry. He was one of the trustees, and first president of the Vermont soldiers' Home, and was a member of the Gettysburg commission in 1889-90. He was the first commander of the Vermont Commandery of the Loyal Legion, and would have been re-elected had he lived until the coming annual meeting of the commandery. He was a member of Stannard Post No. 2, G.A.R., Department of Vermont, and would have been made department commander had be been willing to accept the election. He was a member of the Vermont Society of Sons of the American Revolution.
General Wells was identified with many important business enterprises in the city, being president of the Burlington Trust Company, president of the Burlington Gas-Light Company, president of the Burlington Board of Trade, director of the Burlington Cold Storage Company, director in the Rutland Railroad Company, and director in the Champlain Transportation Company. He was a member and a vestryman of Saint Paul's Church, was one of the trustees of the Young Men's Christian Association of Burlington, and one of its liberal supporters. Few men touched the life of the community in which he lived in so many important capacities.
His sudden death from angina pectoris, in New York City, April 29, 1892, removed, while in the prime of life, a most genial, courteous, and kind-hearted man, a gallant soldier, and one of the most respected citizens of the Green Mountain State. He was buried in Lake View Cemetery, at Burlington, Vermont, where a large granite boulder marks his last resting place.
General Sheridan, in speaking of General Wells, said, "He was my ideal of a cavalry officer."
Source: Jackson, H. Nelson. "Dedication of the Statue to Brevet Major-General William Wells and the Officers and Men of the First Regiment Vermont Cavalry, on the Battlefield of Gettysburg July 3, 1913." Privately printed, 1914.
Revised Roster article.
