Charles E. Williams & the Gettysburg Reunion

In 1913, the State of Maine offered to pay the expenses and arrange transportation to Gettysburg and back for any Maine resident who had participated in the battle and who wanted to attend the great 50th Reunion. This is the stub of the ticket issued to "Lieutenant Colonel Charles Williams, formerly of the 1st Virginia Cavalry," latterly a resident of Maine, who had somewhat hesitantly inquired if the State's generosity applied to him. It did. Here are the elegant exchanges between the "ex-Virginia Cavalryman" and the Adjutant General of Maine:

We have recently learned through our good friends in Cyberspace that no one named Charles E. Williams ever served in the 1st Virginia Cavalry! His 1923 obituary notices in the Bangor, Maine newspapers affirm that he was a Lieutenant Colonel in the 1st Virginia Cavalry; and mention is made of his speaking before Maine veteran's groups and even being made an honorary member of one of them. The obituaries claim that he was born in Richmond, Virginina, in 1844 and that he attended "Lexington Military Academy" (VMI?), The College of William and Mary and the University of Virginia. It is also asserted that after he moved to Maine he attended the University of Maine School of Law, but the folks at the University can find no record of anyone by that name. It is claimed that he was the Confederate contributor to former 20th Maine member Theodore Gerrish's The Blue and the Gray, but that person turns out to be a Private John S. Hutchinson. About the only statement we can find that is true is that he wrote a biography of Governor Abner Coburn.

We confess we are baffled! The man even turns up in the 1890 Special Census of Civil War Veterans and Widows at "Lt. Colonel, 1st Virginia Cavalry". Williams apparently got away with this for years, though you'd think some veterans, particularly the boys of the 1st Maine Cavalry, would have unmasked him. We will continue to try to get to the bottom of this. We are also looking for another book he is supposed to have written called The Penalty of Recklessness: or Virginia Society Twenty Years Ago, A Tale of Love, Duelling and Death! Good grief! We'll keep you updated.