- Date:
- 1868
- Original Format:
- Glass Negative Print
- Item#:
- MES21348
- Photographer:
- Mathew Brady
Alpheus S. Williams (1810-1878)
Alpheus Starkey Williams was a brevet major general of volunteers in the Union Army, known as "Old Pap" because of his unusually full beard. In the Mexican War Williams served as a lieutenant colonel, after which he was postmaster of Detroit (1849-53). At the start of the Civil War Williams was commissioned as a brigadier general of volunteers and by war's end was a brevet major general of volunteers (1865). Williams was appointed minister resident to El Salvador (1866-69) and then elected as a Democrat to two terms of Congress (from 1875 until his death).