Fellow Sharpshooters

We are fortunate to have a pair of sources to learn about the remarkable story and fate of Private Sexton Williams (New Hampshire’s Co. F 2nd USSS).

Dan Masters May 26, 2023 blog introduces Sexton Williams describing his harrowing experiences during the Battle of the Wilderness; “Coming Out with a Whole Hide: A Sharpshooter Describes the Wilderness”

Here is the introduction: “After nearly two years of relatively quiet service on the California and Oregon frontiers with the 2nd California Infantry, Kentucky native Sexton W. Williams secured a transfer into Co. F of the 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters and journeyed east to serve with the Army of the Potomac. The regiment found itself in a very hot place indeed on May 6, 1864 during the Battle of the Wilderness”

Sexton’s original letter was published in the June 9, 1864 edition of the Summit County (Ohio) Beacon; home of his friend, fellow California gold miner/Co. F comrade, Daniel W. Buckingham, and therein lies a curious tale.

On page 140-141 of his memoir, Wyman White pays tribute to Daniel W. “Buck” Buckingham, who with Williams, he described as the “bravest of the brave”. At Gettysburg, Buckingham was “very much out of health but did his duty and kept up with the company until we camped at White Sulphur Springs. He was obliged then to give up and be sent to the hospital”.

While in the hospital, Buckingham “came under the eye of Miss Dix, President of the Christian Commission”. Dix learned Buck had left home and his family had received no word from him since he departed for the gold fields of California, thirteen years earlier. Miss Dix notified his family and arranged a furlough so Buck could return home to Ohio and be reunited with them “for a few weeks” before succumbing to his illness.

White finishes his tribute: “Whatever might have been his life or whatever might have been the cause of his estrangement from home, the thought comes, All’s was well at last with him as he died for his country in the home from which he had wandered and for so long a time had been as one of the dead to them”.

While history is (presently) silent about Sexton William’s relationship with his own Kentucky family, his letter to Buckingham’s home town newspaper suggests that a correspondence between him and Buck’s family had commenced after the reunion. Possibly Williams found a welcoming family/community in Ohio, and he enjoyed the opportunity to keep them informed about his life in the Sharpshooters.

Ironically, only eight days after his letter was published, Sexton was wounded at Petersburg; not dueling with Confederate sharpshooters, but impatiently waiting for a comrade to remove his boiler from the fire that Sexton had kindled to cook his own rations. The Kentucky giant, California gold seeker, redeemed deserter and daring Sharpshooter’s wound ultimately proved fatal. Sexton Williams “the bravest of the brave” is fittingly buried at Arlington Cemetery.

Private Sexton W. Williams, Co. F, 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters letter can be found here:https://dan-masters-civil-war.blogspot.com/2023/05/coming-out-with-whole-hide-sharpshooter.html?m=1

Brian White’s December 10, 2024 installment of They Expect Wonders of Us; Stories of Berdan's Sharpshooters in the American Civil War, features a CDV of Sexton Williams and biographical sketch: https://civilwarsharpshooters.blog/2024/12/10/sexton-w-williams/

It is a rare treat to find a pair complimentary blogs that provide readers with the faces and legacy of U.S Sharpshooters, that might be consigned as an anonymous name between the leafs of a book.

Bill Skillman
Berdan Sharpshooters Survivors Association