Kentucky’s Civil War leaders …
Williams, nicknamed ‘Cerro Gordo,’
led with distinction throughout conflict

(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the 31st in a series about Kentucky’s officers and battle leaders during the Civil War.)

Confederate Brig. Gen. John Stuart Williams was once described as “proud, profane and utterly fearless in battle.”

He gained that reputation early on when he raised the Independent Kentucky Rifles company in Clark County and led his men with distinction in the Mexican War’s Battle of Cerro Gordo in April 1847. He helped the Americans win the day and forever after would be known as “Cerro Gordo.”

Born near Mount Sterling July 10, 1818, Williams was graduated from Miami (Ohio) University, studied law, was admitted to the bar and practiced in Paris, Ky. He was a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1851 and 1853 and became known as a leading proponent of states rights. He was initially an anti-secessionist, but abhorred President Abraham Lincoln’s policies and cast his lot with the Confederacy.

With the outbreak of the Civil War, Williams traveled to Prestonsburg in early 1861 and was commissioned colonel of the 5th Kentucky Infantry. He served initially in the Eastern Theater under Brig. Gen. Humphrey Marshall in southwestern Virginia and participated in Marshall’s ill-fated invasion of eastern Kentucky in 1862. He was promoted to brigadier general in 1863 and assigned command of the Department of Southwestern Virginia.

Williams organized a brigade of cavalry and helped resist Union Gen. Ambrose Burnside’s invasion of eastern Tennessee in the autumn of 1863. He resigned that command and transferred to Georgia, assuming command of the Kentucky regiments in the cavalry of Gen. Joseph Wheeler. He received a formal resolution of thanks from the Second Confederate Congress in the fall of 1864 for his actions at the Battle of Saltville.

The general returned home following the war and went on to engage in agricultural pursuits at his residence in Winchester. He again became a member of the state house in 1873 and 1875, ran unsuccessfully for governor of Kentucky in 1875 and was a presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1876.

He was elected to the United States Senate in 1879 and served from March 4, 1879 to March 3, 1885. He failed in his reelection bid and returned to his agricultural pursuits.

Williams became involved in land development in Florida in the late 1880s. Along with Louisville businessman Walter N. Haldeman, publisher of The Louisville Courier-Journal, he founded the town of Naples, Fla.

At age 80, Williams died in Mount Sterling and was buried in Winchester Cemetery in Clark County.