Civil War vet's grave gets military marker
Local lawmakers, veterans groups and Civil War re-enactors braved the rain and wind Saturday to dedicate a military headstone to a Civil War veteran, state legislator and Butler resident.
Chad Slater, with the 63rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, a Civil War re-enactment group named after a Union infantry organized in 1861, worked with Veterans of Foreign War Post 249 in Butler to place a military headstone on the grave of Lt. Andrew Williams in the North Side Cemetery nearly a century after his death.
Slater learned about Williams through the group, including Williams' efforts to raise a company of men to join the 63rd Regiment, his declining a captaincy and choosing to serve as a private, and Williams being wounded four times in the Civil War.
Slater said that although Williams' grave is marked by a simple gravestone, there is no mention of his military service. Flags and service markers placed on Williams' grave would disappear.
Slater worked with VFW Post 249 to set up Williams' military marker. The post paid for the headstone.
“Today's the official dedication: It's a proper way to observe Memorial Day,” said Jason Tindal, commander of Post 249 and VFW District 25.
“It was an honor to honor a fallen brother,” he said. “The motto of the VFW is 'No one does more for veterans.' This falls right in our wheelhouse.”
U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16th, praised the 1.5 million Americans who had served in the miliary.He presented Williams' great-granddaughter, Mary Carolyn Hunt of Pittsburgh, and great-grandson, Stuart Hunt of Pittsburgh, with a certificate of congressional recognition.State Rep. Marci Mustello, R-11th, quoted Gen. Douglas MacArthur's 1962 speech to West Point cadets: “As we reach into the future, never forget the past. When we forget about the past, we cannot move on.”Local historian Bill 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 Williams 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.After the war, according to the history of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Williams worked as an attorney, bookkeeper and notary public.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.He died on April 6, 1923, and was buried next to his wife, Emma, who died in 1917.“Fittingly for a man who had been a soldier in the Civil War, his funeral and burial were held on April 9th, the same day, only 58 years earlier, that Robert E. Lee had surrendered his Confederate army to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at a place called Appomattox Court House in Virginia,” Mays said.On Saturday, Williams' military headstone was uncovered, and Williams was given a 21-gun salute by members of the 63rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry and a veterans' honor guard followed by a playing of taps.
