Williams Carter Wickham (Williams Carter Wickham)

(September 21, 1820 - July 23, 1888)
. Wheeler was both a strategist and field commander - an intelligent, aggressive and fearless.
. Williams Carter Wickham was the son of William Fanning Wickham and Ann Carter and the great grandson of General Thomas Nelson, commander of the front of the Virgin in the era of the War of Independence and signatory of the Declaration of Independence
. He was born September 21, 1820 in Richmond, Virginia, received a law degree from the University of Virginia, and began practice in 1847, leaving no worries about the family plantation. In January 1848 Wickham married Lucy Penn Taylor (her great-grandfather, too, signed the Declaration of Independence), and in 1849 he was elected to the House of Representatives of Virginia and for many years was chief judge in the county Henover. In 1858 he was awarded the captaincy Virginia Volunteer Cavalry, and in 1859 Wickham in the elections held in the State Senate. He was an ardent opponent of separation from Virginia Union and the Convention of 1861 voted against the move, . but immediately after the war decided to share the fate of the South and joined the regular army of the Confederation, along with his company "Henoverskih dragoons",
. Wickham participated in the 1 st Battle of Manassas in September 1861,. Governor Letcher awarded him the rank of Lieutenant Colonel 4 th Virginia Cavalry Regiment. On May 4, 1862. Mounted in an attack on the position of the Yankees in Williamsburg, he received a severe saber wound, which did not allow him to participate in the subsequent battles at Richmond. Wickham had been treated at home, when he was unexpectedly captured by the advancing troops McClellan. However, the northerners quickly exchanged Wickham at his wife's cousin, federal Colonel Thomas L. Kane. Captivity beneficial impact on the career Wickham, . and in August 1862 he was awarded the rank of colonel 4 th Virginia Cavalry, . under the banner of which he later fought with the 2 nd Manassas, . Bunsboro and Sharpsburg, . causing the respect and honor by Jeb Stuart.,

. When the Federal Army of the Potomac in Virginia, after failing to Confederate battle of Sharpsburg (Entieteme) Wickham was wounded again, . this time in the neck by shrapnel of an artillery shell, . and in that moment he temporarily commanded a cavalry brigade of Fitzhugh Lee, with Apperville,
. Recovered after injury, Wickham returned to his regiment and participated in the Battle of Fredericksburg Dec. 12, 1862. In the spring of 1863, he was among those who actively contributed to the victory of southerners in the tactical battles preceding the Battle of Chansellorsville, and during most of the battle his regiment fought on the Confederate right flank. Then, in 1863, Williams Carter Wickham his candidature from the elections in Richmond confederate Congress and won with a huge advantage. However, he remained in the army, and his seat in Congress left vacant until the spring of 64-th
. During the Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania regiment Wickham participated in the raid around the Army cavalry Stuart Mead and joined the main parts of Lee only on the eve of the battle of Gettysburg
. Wickham took up positions on the edge of the left flank and an exemplary completed the task for the cavalry to cover up the subsequent retreat of the Confederate. On September 9, 1863. he was awarded the rank of brigadier general and Wickham led the team in the division Fitzhugh Lee. Autumn was marked by a number of serious clashes with the cavalry of the enemy - in Bristow, Buckland Mills, and, once again, at Brandy Station. In February 1864 the brigade Wickham opposed Kilpatrick raid on Richmond, and desperate attacks on Custer Charlottsvill, and in March and April, patrolled the river banks and Rapidan Rappahennok. Wickham also participated in major battles in Uayldernesse and Spotsilveynia, when Sheridan moved to Richmond, that Wickham was with Stewart 11 th May at Yellow Tavern. Last deathbed ordered Stewart read: "I order the brigade Wickham to dismount and attack". Next Wickham almost without a break in the battles fought in Totopotomey, Cold Harbor, Trevilien Station and Rimz Station. In August 1864 his team was instructed to support the army juban Early in the Virginia Valley, with Fitzhugh Lee took command of the Cavalry Corps, and Wickham - the former Division Lee. September 19, 1864 after the Battle of Winchester Wickham covered the Confederate retreat from the battlefield. September 22 hungry, . naked and more than three times lower than feds on the number of soldiers Airlie again defeated - at Fishers Hills, . and the complete destruction of their saved only Cavalry Division Wickham, . who bravely blocked the way federal housing Torberta and thereby destroying the plans of northerners,
. Further, Wickham attacked the Federal cavalry at Ueynsboro and forced her to withdraw.

. October 5, 1864, Brigadier General Wickham resigned from the southern army, over command to General Rosser and went to Richmond to take his seat in Congress, which opened regular session
. He penetrate, that the Confederation has already been doomed, but tried to do everything possible to end it was the least awful. After the capitulation of Wickham decided to devote himself to the revival of the South through the restoration of friendship with the Union, trying to reconcile his countrymen to defeat in the war and the emergence of a new reality. April 23, 1865 in an open letter, he proclaimed his ostentatious entry into the Republican Party, the party of the victorious North, and this move alienated many of his old friends and colleagues, who considered such a step betrayal. In November 1865, he became president of Virginia Central Railroad Company, in November 1868 - the place the president of the railway company Chizapik-Ohio, and remained in the system of means of communication until his death. Simultaneously Wickham held a variety of other social and political sinecures, obviously being a favorite of the new masters of the South. In 1883 he was elected to the Senate of Virginia and led the finance committee. Wickham had died of a heart attack in his office in Richmond July 23, 1888. This man after the war became a political opponent of his former colleagues, . but, . unless, . Many of them signed obituary, . stating: <In the camp and on the battlefield, . in fatigue of the march and in the darkness of the hospital, . hardships in the expectation and in the glory of the attack - he was always a friend, . Comrade, . defender, . leader, . beautiful ideal soldier and commander>,
. That Confederate veterans, and not the invaders from the North, which Wickham served after the defeat in the war, have decided to perpetuate his memory in bronze. October 29, 1891 a monument to Williams Carter Wickham was opened at the Virginia Capitol, and a solemn speech read none other like an old Southern cavalry general Fitzhugh Lee.