Honor Overdue Civil War veteran's grave needs military headstone
Civil War veteran, state legislator and Butler resident Andrew Williams has never been given his due.
That's the opinion of Civil War re-enactor Chad Slater and Jason Tindall, commander of VFW Post 249 in Butler, who are working to have a military headstone placed on Williams' grave in the North Side Cemetery at 1002 N. Main St., nearly 100 years after his death.
Slater learned about Williams through Slater's involvement with the 63rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, a Civil War re-enactment group named after a Union infantry organized in 1861 in Pittsburgh.
“I had gotten 'Under the Red Patch,' a history of the 63rd,” Slater said. “That's how I found out about Williams.”
“After that, I went to the (Butler Area Public) library and found out that this is where he was buried,” he said.
Williams' mention in the history of the 63rd piqued Slater's interest.
“I know he was born in Richmond, Va. I don't know how he ended up in Butler,” he said.
Slater learned Williams tried to raise a company of men to join the 63rd regiment, but only managed to secure 78 of the 100 men needed.
The 63rd's commander, Col. Alexander Hays, told Williams to bring his men to Harrisburg, where there were recruits to fill out Williams' company.
Local historian and tour guide Bill May of the Butler County Civil War Roundtable said Williams was born in Richmond, Va., in 1840 and moved with his family to Etna in 1848.
May said Williams declined a captaincy with the 63rd Infantry, signing on as a private.He received a field promotion to lieutenant at the Second Battle of Bull Run.May said he was wounded four times, once in the head and hand at the battle of Fredricksburg, Va., in 1862, during the Battle of the Charles City Crossroads in 1862, and again in the head at the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864.Slater learned Williams attended Duff's Business College.After the war, according to the history of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Williams worked as an attorney, bookkeeper and notary republic.“In 1876, he formed a law partnership with Alexander Mitchell, which lasted for 40 years until Mitchell's death,” May said.“It's said Williams and Mitchell never fought once during their partnership,” he said, adding the only time they closed their law office was when they both attended their Civil War units' reunions.Williams was elected to a single term in the state House in 1891 and was also elected to the state Senate from 1900 to 1906. During the same time frame, he was also a member of the Soldiers' Orphans' School Commission.He died on April 6, 1923, and was buried next to his wife, Emma, who died in 1917.May said his funeral, at the home he built at 446 N. McKean St., was appropriately enough on April 19, the anniversary of Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox on April 19, 1865.His grave and his wife's are marked by simple 9-inch-high gravestones.
Tindall and Slater said as a veteran Williams is entitled to a three-and-a-half-foot-high military gravestone listing his rank and branch of the service.“He's a veteran entitled to a military stone. I don't know why he didn't get one,” Slater said. “Maybe he was humble and didn't want a whole lot of accolades.”Still, Slater will file paperwork with Veterans Affairs to get a military tombstone to be placed to the left of Williams' present grave marker.“We're working on that,” said John Cyprian, director of Butler County Veterans Services. “We'll sit down next week and make sure everything is correct.”Cyprian said a gravestone request usually takes about six months.If the request is denied, Tindall said his VFW post will pay to have a military gravestone set up out of a fund the post has to buy graves and grave markers.“He's owed this by us,” Tindall said.Slater said he hopes to be able to locate any descendants of Williams.May said Williams had three sons and a daughter.Slater said he and Tindall hope to have an installation ceremony at Williams' grave on Memorial Day 2021.“We're going to ask Congressman (Mike) Kelly to attend and (state Rep.) Marci Mustello and the city council,” Slater said. “There will be a VFW honor guard and a Civil War re-enactors' honor guard.“It's something that needs to be done,” Slater said.
