William W. Averell

• 1. A Boy From Cameron

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  William Woods Averell was born on the 5th of November 1832 in Cameron, New York. As a young boy, he worked as a drugstore clerk in the nearby town of Bath. This early employment placed him within the daily rhythm of small-town life before his military career began. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1855 and received a commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Mounted Rifles. His first assignments included garrison duty at Jefferson Barracks in Missouri and service at the U.S. Army Cavalry School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. During two years of service in New Mexico, he was wounded in action against Native American forces in October 1858. The injury placed him on the disabled list until the outbreak of the Civil War.

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• 2. The First Battle Of Bull Run

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  After the capture of Fort Sumter, Lieutenant Averell made a risky solo journey across the country to the Indian Territory with a message to summon his old mounted rifle regiment to the East. He first saw action at the First Battle of Bull Run while acting as assistant adjutant general to Brigadier General Andrew Porter. In August 1861, he was appointed colonel of the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry regiment. He led this unit through the Peninsula Campaign and the Seven Days Battles. Immediately after that campaign, on the 6th of July 1862, he was given command of the 1st Cavalry Brigade in the Army of the Potomac. He missed the Battle of Antietam and most of the Maryland Campaign because he recovered from a bout of malaria known at the time as Chickahominy Fever. President Abraham Lincoln appointed Averell a brigadier general of volunteers on the 26th of September 1862. Lincoln had to nominate Averell three times before the U.S. Senate confirmed the appointment on the 11th of March 1863.

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• 3. Relief At Chancellorsville

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  His division fought the Battle of Kelly's Ford on the 17th of March 1863, notable as the first engagement in which Union cavalrymen claimed victory against their Confederate counterparts. The 2nd Division's reputation was diminished as it participated in Major General George Stoneman's fruitless cavalry raid during the Battle of Chancellorsville six weeks later. On the 2nd of May 1863, Union Army commander Major General Joseph Hooker relieved Averell of his command due to his slow performance during the raid. Hooker subsequently sent a report to the Adjutant General stating that Averell seemed content with marching through Culpeper to Rapidan without meeting an enemy deserving the name. Averell left the Army of the Potomac after this relief. He conducted what is called Averell's West Virginia Raid against the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad in November 1863. In the spring of 1864, he led another cavalry raid toward Saltville but was stopped by Confederate generals John Hunt Morgan and William E. Grumble Jones at Cove Gap in the Battle of Cove Mountain.

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• 4. Victory Before Sheridan

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  In the summer of 1864, when Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal Early had invaded Maryland, Averell proved to be the only Union commander to achieve victory against the Confederates in the Shenandoah Valley before the arrival of Philip Sheridan. He routed Confederate Major General Stephen D. Ramseur at the Battle of Rutherford's Carter's Farm on the 20th of July 1864. This engagement inflicted 400 casualties and captured a four-gun battery despite Averell being significantly outnumbered. When Confederate Brigadier General John McCausland burned Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, to the ground on July 30, Averell tracked him down near Moorefield, West Virginia. Using scouts disguised as Confederates in his vanguard, Averell routed McCausland in a sunrise attack upon the Confederate camp. The battle resulted in hundreds of prisoners and another four-gun battery falling into Union hands during the Battle of Moorefield.

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• 5. The Second Relief And Resignation

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  During the Valley Campaigns of 1864 against Early, Averell fought under Major General Philip Sheridan. He was relieved of command a second time in his career on the 23rd of September 1864 following a dispute with Sheridan about Averell's actions after the Battle of Fisher's Hill. A staff officer wrote that he saw General Averell sitting in front of his tent looking dreadfully depressed and broken. The observer believed he started for the rear within a few moments after they left him and never was employed again during the war. Averell resigned from the Union Army volunteers and from the U.S. regular army on the 18th of May 1865. On the 17th of July 1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated Averell for appointment to the grades of brevet brigadier general and brevet major general in the regular army. The U.S. Senate confirmed these appointments on the 23rd of July 1866. The latter appointment recognized Averell's actions at the Battle of Kelly's Ford.

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• 6. Consul And Inventor

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  Following the Civil War, President Johnson appointed Averell as U.S. consul general to British North America where he served from 1866 to 1869. In 1888, during Grover Cleveland's presidency, Averell was reinstated in the Army by a special Act of Congress and placed upon the retired list. He also served as Assistant Inspector General of Soldiers Homes from 1888 to 1898. Averell became an entrepreneur and inventor working in the fields of coal, steel and eventually paving materials. His businesses and inventions generated a handsome income. Among his inventions were methods for manufacturing steel castings and insulated electrical cable. He is best known for his work in techniques of laying asphalt pavement. Averell had become interested in asphalt as early as 1870 when experimental pavement based on procedures patented by Edward de Smedt was laid in New York City and Newark, New Jersey. As president of the Grahamite Asphalt Pavement Company, he developed improved techniques for laying pavement which he patented in 1878 as Improvement in Asphaltic Pavement.

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• 7. Memoirs And Final Years

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  Averell wrote Ten Years in the Saddle published in 1978 and co-authored History of the Third Pennsylvania Cavalry 60th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers published in 1905. Both books were published posthumously. The manuscript for his memoir was not discovered until the later 20th century and it was published in an annotated edition. General Averell died in Bath, New York, and is buried there. In 1976, Averell was one of the first class of ten inductees for the Steuben County Hall of Fame. Averell Street in Winchester, Virginia marks the area where his former troops went into winter quarters in 1864.

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