A Previously Unrecorded Confederate Naval Surgeon.

by Terry Foenander.

The pages of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion include many references to personnel from the Confederate States Navy, including some officers whose names were omitted from the Naval Registers for one reason or another. Perhaps some of them were not officially commissioned into the Naval service, or perhaps some of them served in the State Naval service, and on the transfer of the majority of these State Naval Officers to the Confederate Navy, were not accepted because they were considered unfit for service in the Confederate States Navy. Others may have been omitted through clerical errors. One such error is that of an assistant surgeon, W.T. Williams, whose name seems to have been lost to history, even though, as is noted in the following dispatch, he was officially appointed into the Naval service, but died before he could be assigned to active duty. The destruction of many of the records of the Confederate government at the close of the war seems to have ensured that his name was never recorded for posterity in other sources. The copy of the dispatch, addressed at Richmond, Virginia, April 28, 1864, was sent by chief surgeon William A.W. Spotswood to the Secretary of the Navy, Stephen R. Mallory, and can be found on page 647, Series 2, Volume 2 of the Naval Official Records. Following is a copy of the dispatch in full:

SIR: In my last report of November 30, 1863, I submitted to the department a detailed report of the condition of the medical department of the Confederate States Navy, entering into a full detail of all matters connected with its administration. I have now the honor to report that since that period there has been no very material change in its affairs. During this interval of nearly five months every medical officer has been constantly on duty with the exception of two, who have been sick for a short period.

In the corps of surgeons I regret to announce the death of Dr. D.S. Green, one of its most worthy members, whose zeal in the performance of his professional duties caused him to neglect too long the proper treatment of a disease which terminated his life on the 5th of March, 1864. In the corps of assistant surgeons for the war, Dr. W.T. Williams, of Oxford, N.C., who had received his appointment, died on the 15th of March, before receiving orders to Charleston. [Emphasis added.]

The number of assistant surgeons for the war required by law has been nearly completed, there being now but seven wanted to make up the quota after appointments have been given to the eight reported as having passed their examination, all of whom will be in a short time required upon duty.

The corps of surgeons is not sufficiently full to meet the wants of the service, there being at this time three whose services will soon be needed to fill important posts, viz, one at Drewry's Bluff, one at the hospital at Smithville, N.C., and one on board the steamer Virginia, leaving still several ironclads of small size with assistant surgeons on board. If, therefore, it is the intention of the department to have surgeons on board of all ironclads, I deem it my duty to recommend the increase of this corps to at least 30 in order to supply all the stations and vessels.

In the purveyor's department, a full and ample supply of medicines, hospital stores, surgical instruments, etc., have been furnished for the use of all the stations and vessels of the Navy, and arrangements have been made to keep up this supply from England, via Bermuda, from whence there has been received a valuable assortment of medical stores within the last month.

Reports from all the stations and squadrons show a condition of health not to have been anticipated during the prevalence of such inclement weather that has existed for the past two months, the station of James River being the only exception, where there has been much more than the usual amount of sickness for the season.

In conclusion, I will merely advert to the detail lately made in the purveyor's department of efficient employees, who are kept constantly engaged in making preparations, packing up, and conveying medical supplies to the various stations south of Richmond.

Trusting that this report may be deemed by the Navy Department a sufficient exposition of the state of affairs in the medical department for the last five months,

I have the honor to be, most respectfully, your obedient servant,

W.A.W. SPOTSWOOD

Surgeon in Charge.

There are other references to persons who claimed to have been officers in the Confederate States Navy, such as lieutenant Joseph F. Stevenson, and to those who were assumed to be officers in the same service, such as chief engineer John Bonica, but none of these were actually indicated as being official appointments by an authority of the Naval department, as was assistant surgeon Williams.

Additional Notes: William T. Williams was born on June 25, 1840, and was a resident of Nash County, North Carolina; being a physician by trade. [1] He was originally appointed a Captain in company H of the 12th North Carolina Infantry on May 1, 1861, and then Lieutenant Colonel in the 1st North Carolina Battalion (later the 32nd North Carolina Infantry), on November 29, 1861, tendering his resignation on June 18, 1863, giving the unusual reason that he had wanted to serve the Confederacy as a private. At a later stage he was nominated for an appointment in the Confederate States Navy as Assistant Surgeon. After his death he was interred in the Arrington Family Cemetery, off Highway 43, in Nash County, North Carolina. [2]

Photograph of the tombstone of William T. Williams, which only lists his Army service. Williams was the son of Henry Guston Williams II and Elizabeth Nicholson Arrington of Nash County, North Carolina.
[Biographical notes and image contributed by Sue Musette. Please address any queries on the Williams or Arrington family genealogies to Sue at that e-mail link.]

Sources:

[1] North Carolina Troops, 1861-1865: A Roster, volume V, page 204; reprint edition published 1990, by the North Carolina Division of Archives and History, which gives his appointment date to Lieutenant Colonel of the 32nd N.C. as September 26, 1861.

[2] See Robert K. Krick's volume, Lee's Colonel's, Morningside Books, 1979, page 372 [this particular source gives his date of death as March 7, 1864, as opposed to the date shown in the Naval Official Records]; as well as the Journal of the Confederate Congresses. Mr. Gerald Mogren of Wichita, Kansas, was kind enough to direct me to this source of information.

Copyright, Terry Foenander.

November, 2000 (Updated April, 2005).