William Orton Williams

William Orton Williams, (July 7, 1839 – June 9, 1863) called Orton Williams until he changed his name to Lawrence Williams Orton, was a Confederate officer during the American Civil War who, after being caught behind Union lines in a U.S. Army uniform, was executed as a spy. Early life Orton Williams was the son of Captain William G. Williams, an officer in the Corps of Topographical Engineers, and America Pinckney Peters Williams. Captain Williams died of wounds sustained in the Battle of Monterey in 1846 and, as his wife had predeceased him, young Orton was raised by his sister Martha Custis Williams. A cousin of Mary Lee, the wife of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, Orton spent many days of his youth at Arlington House, playing as a child and waiting upon Eleanor Agnes Lee, Robert E. Lee's third daughter, as a young man. U.S. Army In 1859, Williams served as a civilian employee of the Corps of Engineers, for the survey of Minnesota. He was later appointed aid in the United States Coast Survey. In 1861 Williams was, on Robert E. Lee's recommendation, commissioned second lieutenant in Second United States Cavalry, Lee's regiment, direct from civil life. Promoted to first lieutenant the same year, Lieutenant Williams served as aide-de-camp to General Winfield Scott in Washington. After the outbreak of the Civil War he tendered his resignation from the U.S. Army; Scott offered him an instructorship at West Point that would have let him remain in the army, but not having to fight his family and friends. When Williams insisted on leaving the army, he was arrested on suspicion of having passed classified information to the Confederates, but was released after a few weeks. His brother Lawrence, who was a captain in the Tenth U.S. Infantry, remained in the U.S. Army. Confederate Army After joining the Confederate army, Williams was transferred to the West and served as an aide to General Leonidas Polk, fighting at the Battle of Shiloh. William's popularity declined when he killed an insubordinate private soldier and he was transferred to the artillery under the command of Braxton Bragg. There he changed his name to Lawrence Williams Orton, as he said because his brother remained in the Union army, but perhaps to wipe out the stains of the ugly killing. On leave in Virginia, at Christmas 1862, Williams proposed to Eleanor Agnes Lee, but was rejected. Shortly thereafter he married another woman, possibly a Mrs.