Pennsylvania post office is named for an officer thought killed at Wilderness but who went on to a life of service in community

A.G. Williams, second from right, and other 63rd Pennsylvania officers

Andrew Gomer Williams nearly lost his life at the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864 when he was struck in the temple by a bullet. According to Bill May, a historian in the Pennsylvania city where the soldier spent the last half of his life, Williams was found on the battlefield four days later – alive, but scarred. His comrades must have been overjoyed, thinking he had been killed.

After mustering out a few months later, the Union captain made the most of his remaining days, returning to a Pittsburgh-area community and recuperating before becoming a mill worker, lawyer, legislator and church choir director after he moved to Butler, about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh.

Williams was honored last week in Butler with the renaming of the post office on South Main Street to the Andrew Gomer Williams Post Office Building.

Ceremony last week in Butler, Pa., north of Pittsburgh (Rep. Kelly office)

"Andrew Gomer Williams is a true example of an American hero," U.S. Rep Mike Kelly said in a statement. "Mr. Williams lived a life of service to his community and country, and I am proud to cement his legacy in our nation’s history. I hope this honor will allow future generations to learn who Mr. Williams was, and to inspire Americans to live a purpose-driven life just like he did."

Williams, who was born in Richmond, Va., to parents from Maryland, served with Company E of the 63^rd Pennsylvania Regiment, enlisting in 1861 and helping muster three companies. He participated in numerous battles, including Gettysburg, and was wounded at least three times, according to regimental and other histories.

The 63^rd Pennsylvania suffered heavy casualties during the Civil War: 17 officers and 169 enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and one officer and 133 enlisted men by disease. Total 320.

May, in a speech placed in the June 2021 Congressional Record, quoted Williams’ remarks made on the Gettysburg battlefield during a visit in 1889:

“Monuments are as old as our race and all along the history of the dim and dusty age down to the bright and joyous present we have been perpetuating the memory of heroic men.”

Williams (right), May said, was one of those heroic men.

The veteran was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic after the war and assisted comrades and families in Butler, including pension matters. He was on the board of directors for a Civil War orphans home. Williams served terms in the state House of Representatives and Senate.

Williams died in 1923 at age 82, leaving behind his second wife and several children. His grave received a new military headstone in 2021 due to a reenactor group and the local office of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Robert Smalls: House bill would name a Beaufort, S.C., post office branch for the Civil War hero, former slave

A bill naming a post office in Beaufort, S.C., for Civil War hero Robert Smalls, who escaped slavery by commandeering a Rebel steamship, has passed a US House committee.

“He leaves an unmistakable legacy of grit, bravery, and determination which is imbued in the spirit of the Lowcountry to this day,” Rep. Nancy Mace said in a statement Wednesday. She calls Smalls an "exceptional American."

At the start of the Civil War, the enslaved Smalls was a pilot on the CSS Planter. On the morning of May 13, 1862, Smalls led the takeover of the ship by its slave crew, sailed past Charleston Harbor's formidable defenses and surrendered the vessel to the Union blockade fleet. His wife and children were among those on board who gained freedom.

Smalls, 23 at the time, was celebrated across the North for his daring ride to freedom and he served as a ship’s pilot for the rest of the conflict.

The entire South Carolina congressional delegation supports the honor at a shopping plaza on, fittingly, Robert Smalls Parkway, Mace said. John Seibels, Mace’s spokesman, told the Island Packet newspaper that the bill will go the House floor for a vote, which he said will likely pass easily.

The naming would be the latest honor for Smalls.

After the war, he returned to his hometown Beaufort and bought his former master’s home. Following a stint in South Carolina’s Legislature, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and served several terms.

The congressman fought against the disenfranchisement of black voters across the South, according to the American Battlefield Trust. He also fought against segregation within the military. Smalls died in 1915 at age 75.

“Each day I spend in Congress, I strive to live up to the values which Robert Smalls so clearly embodied," said Mace.