Brigadier-General Williams Carter Wickham was the son of
William Fanning Wickham and Anne Carter, and the great-
grandson of Gen. Thomas Nelson, one of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence and the commander-in-chief of the
Virginia Line in the Revolutionary army.

He was born at Richmond, Va., September 21, 1820, moved with
his parents to Hanover county in 1827; was educated at the
university of Virginia, and admitted to the bar in 1842. He
practiced in a country circuit for a few years, and then gave
up the law for the life of a Virginia planter.

On January 11, 1848, he married Lucy Penn Taylor, great-
granddaughter of John Penn, one of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence from North Carolina. He was
elected to the Virginia house of delegates in 1849; was
presiding Justice of the county court of Hanover county for
many years.

In 1858 he was commissioned captain of Virginia volunteer
cavalry, and in 1859 was elected to the State senate from the
district composed of Hanover and Henrico, as a Whig. In 1861,
elected by the people of Henrico to the State convention as a
Union man, he was bitterly opposed to the war and voted
against the ordinance of secession, but immediately upon the
secession of Virginia, he determined to share the fortunes of
his people, and took his company, "the Hanover dragoons, "
into active service.

He participated in the first battle of Manassas and the
preceding outpost skirmishes, and in September, 1861, was
commissioned by Governor Letcher, lieutenant-colonel of the
Fourth Virginia cavalry. On May 4, 1862, he received a severe
saber wound in a cavalry charge at Williamsburg, which
prevented him from participating in the battles around
Richmond.

While wounded he was taken prisoner at his home on McClellan's
advance, paroled, and speedily exchanged by special cartel for
his wife's kinsman, Lieut.-Col. Thomas L. Kane, of the
Pennsylvania "Bucktails." In August, 1862, he was
commissioned colonel of the Fourth Virginia cavalry, and in
that rank he participated in the battles of Second Manassas,
Boonsboro, Sharpsburg and the frequent engagements of the
cavalry under General Stuart.

During the advance of the army of the Potomac into Virginia,
after the battle of Sharpsburg, he was again wounded, by a
piece of shell, in the neck, while temporarily in command of
Fitz Lee's brigade at Upperville. Recovering from this wound,
he regained his command in time to take part in the battle of
Fredericksburg, December 12, 1862.

When the army went into winter quarters, he was on the picket
lines on the Rappahannock river from Fredericksburg to a point
above the junction of the Rapidan, and was on those lines when
Burnside made his unsuccessful attempt to cross the river
again. In the spring of 1863, he and his command participated
actively in the outpost conflicts preceding the battle of
Chancellorsville, and was posted on the right flank during
that battle.

Prior to the opening of the campaign in 1863, while in command
of his regiment at the front, he announced himself a candidate
for the Confederate Congress from the Richmond district, and
without going into the district was elected shortly after the
battle of Chancellorsville, by an unparalleled majority.

He, however, remained at his post in the army, leaving his
seat in Congress vacant until the fall of 1864. On the
advance into Pennsylvania Colonel Wickham's command formed a
part of the force which Stuart took on his raid around Meade's
army, rejoining the army of Northern Virginia on the eve of
the battle of Gettysburg, was posted on the extreme left flank
during that engagement, and aided in covering the retreat.

On September 9, 1863, he was commissioned brigadier-general,
and put in command of Wickham's brigade of Fitzhugh Lee's
division. The cavalry of both armies had frequent encounters
during the following months, the engagements at Bristoe,
Brandy Station and Buckland Mills being the most serious until
February, 1864, when the fighting to repel Kilpatrick's raid
upon Richmond, and Custer's attack on Charlottesville was very
desperate.

In March and April, 1864, General Wickham and his brigade were
again on guard on the Rapidan and Rappahannock rivers. He
took part in the battles of the Wilderness and Spottsylvania
Court House, and when Sheridan moved on Richmond, he was with
Stuart on May 11th at Yellow Tavern.

"Order Wickham to dismount his brigade and attack, " was the
last order given by General Stuart to a brigade of cavalry.
Subsequently he was actively engaged in the battles of
Totopotomay, Cold Harbor, Trevilian's, Reams' Station and many
of the lesser cavalry engagements.

On August 10, 1864, he and his command were ordered from the
south side of the James river to join Early's army in the
valley of Virginia, Fitzhugh Lee being in command of the
cavalry corps with General Wickham in command of Lee's
division.

At the battle of Winchester on September 19, 1864, General
Wickham covered the retreat. Rallying his men with great
ability, General Early again sustained a terrific reverse at
Fisher's hill, September 22nd, and his army was saved from
destruction by the successful defense of the Luray valley by
Lee's cavalry division under the command of General Wickham,
against the advance of Torbert's corps on which Sheridan
relied to intercept the retreat of Early at New Market in the
main valley.

Rejoining General Early at Brown's gap, Wickham was ordered to
guard Rockfish gap, and on arriving at the foot of the
mountain attacked the Federal cavalry at Waynesboro, driving
them back. The next day the enemy retreated down the valley,
and the lines of the armies were established at Bridgewater.

General Wickham resigned his commission in the Confederate
army on October 5, 1864, transferred his command to General
Rosser, went to Richmond and took his seat in Congress when
the session opened. It took him but a few days after the
assembling of the Confederate Congress to ascertain that the
end of the Confederacy was drawing near, and for a brief
period he had the hope that reunion could be brought about
upon a basis which, while it would in no way tarnish the honor
of the armies or people of the South, would save the lives of
thousands of noble men, and preserve some of their property
from the wreck of war.

After the failure of the Hampton Roads conference, he
continued at his post in Richmond, awaiting the end. After
the surrender of the armies, General Wickham addressed himself
to the effort to restore friendly relations between the
sections of the Union; to reorganize on a mutually
satisfactory basis the labor necessary for the farming
operations of the country, and to induce his fellow-citizens
to accept the situation.

The condition of the South was terrible. General Wickham
stood side by side with his old constituents and shared their
fate. He had been educated a Whig and a Union man. When the
war ended, his political faith remained unchanged, and as the
Whig party had disappeared, he adopted the principles of the
party which he regarded as its legitimate successor.

On April 23, 1865, in an open letter, he aligned himself with
the Republican party. This step estranged very many of his
old associates from him. In November, 1865, he was elected
president of the Virginia Central railroad company; in
November, 1868, president of the Chesapeake & Ohio railroad
company, and in 1869 was made vice-president of the company
with C. P. Huntington as president, and continued as such
until 1875, when he was appointed its receiver, which position
he held until July 1, 1878, when he became its second vice-
president and so continued until his death.

He was elected chairman of the board of supervisors of Hanover
county in 1871, and was continuously re-elected as long as he
lived. In 1872 he was a member of the electoral college of
Virginia, and cast his vote for General Grant. In 1880 he was
honored by a tender of the secretaryship of the navy by
President Hayes, but declined on account of business
engagements.

In 1881 he was tendered the nomination for governor of the
State by the Republican convention, but declined to accept it.
Opposing the "readjusterparty" in 1883, he again became a
member of the State senate, and was the chairman of the
finance committee of that body until his death, although he
occupied an independent position and declined to go into any
caucus.

While not an impassioned speaker, he was brave and calm and
cool, and possessed in a remarkable degree the capacity to
arouse manifestations of enthusiasm and personal attachment.

On the 23rd of July, 1888, he died in his office in Richmond
of heart failure.

The men of his old command, from many of whom he had become
politically estranged, resolved that "in the camp and on the
field of battle, in the fatigue of the march, in the gloom of
the hospital, under the depression of the waiting and in the
glory of the charge, he was the friend, the comrade, the
guardian, the leader of his men, the beau-ideal of a soldier
and of a commander," and they organized to perpetuate his
memory in bronze.

In 1890 the general assembly of Virginia provided for a site
on the capitol grounds for the statue of General Wickham,
which was unveiled on October 29, 1891, the oration being
delivered by Gen. Fitzhugh Lee.

Source: Confederate Military History, vol. IV, p. 685