Williams Carter Wickham: Difference between revisions

|battles = [[American Civil War]]<br>[[First Battle of Manassas]]<br>[[Battle of Williamsburg]]<br>[[Battle of Sharpsburg]]<br>[[Battle of Chancellorsville]]<br>[[Battle of Brandy Station]]<br>[[Gettysburg Campaign]]<br>[[Battle of Yellow Tavern]]<br> [[Valley Campaigns of 1864]]

'''Williams Carter Wickham''' (September 21, 1820 – July 23, 1888) was a [[Virginia]] lawyer and politician. A plantation owner who served in both houses of the [[Virginia General Assembly]], Wickham also became a delegate to the [[Virginia Secession Convention of 1861]], where he voted against secession, but after fellow delegates and voters approved secession, he joined the [[Confederate States Army]] and rose to the rank of [[cavalry]] general, as well asthen became a Confederate States Congressman near the end of the [[American Civil War]]. Later, Wickham became a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] and helped rebuild Virginia's infrastructure after gaining control of the heavily damaged [[Virginia Central Railroad]], which he repaired and helped merge into the [[Chesapeake and Ohio Railway]] company. Cooperating with financier [[Collis Huntington]], Wickham developed coal resources and the [[Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company|Newport News Shipyard]]. He was also again elected to the Virginia Senate. His son [[Henry T. Wickham]] also became a lawyer and would work with his father and eventually twice become the speaker pro tempore of the Virginia Senate.

Wickham was born in [[Richmond, Virginia]], the son of William Fanning Wickham and Anne Butler (née Carter) Wickham. His paternal grandfather [[John Wickham (1763)|John Wickham]] was a prominent Richmond lawyer and slaveowner who had moved from New York state to Richmond following the American Revolutionary War.<ref name=obit>{{cite news| url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1197346/staunton-spectator/| title=Death of Gen. Williams C. Wickham| newspaper=Staunton Spectator| location=Staunton, VA| date=July 25, 1888| page=2| via=Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}</ref> His great-grandfather had been an Anglican minister in New York state, so he had relatives there. On his mother's side, Wickham descended from the [[First Families of Virginia]], specifically the Nelson and Carter families prominent in the [[Virginia Colony]].

In November 1865, Wickham became president of the [[Virginia Central Railroad]], which had been one of the most heavily damaged during the War. In 1868, the Virginia Central merged with the [[Covington and Ohio Railroad]] to form the new [[Chesapeake and Ohio RailwayRailroad (1868–1878)|Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad]], and Wickham became the new company's president.<ref name=statue /> He worked to complete a railroad line to the [[Ohio River]], long a dream of Virginians.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaead/published/vt/viblbv00240.bioghist| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120210190936/http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaead/published/vt/viblbv00240.bioghist| archive-date=February 10, 2012| title=Biographical Information| website=The Library of Virginia}}</ref> However, unlike fellow Confederate officer and railroad leader [[William Mahone]], WickhamdWickham was initially unable to secure capital or financing in Virginia, or from Europeans.

After Huntington assumed the presidency, Wickham remained with the C&O as vice-president from 1869 to 1878, when the company went into foreclosure following a national panic, with Wickham as receiver.<ref name=statue /> In 1878 the Chesapeake and Ohio RailroadC&O was reorganized as the [[Chesapeake and Ohio Railway]] Company, with Collis P. Huntington assuming the office of President of the reorganized road; Wickham became second vice-president. Under their leadership, an additional line was extended east from Richmond through the new [[Church Hill Tunnel]] and down the [[Virginia Peninsula]] through [[Williamsburg, Virginia|Williamsburg]] to reach [[coal pier]]s located on the harbor [[Hampton Roads]], the East Coast of the United States' largest [[ice-free port]] at the small unincorporated town of [[Newport News, Virginia|Newport News]] in [[Warwick County, Virginia|Warwick County]]. Before the war, the [[Gosport Shipyard]] in Portsmouth had served the U.S. Navy, and then the Confederate Navy until Federal forces gained control of the Hampton Roads area, so skilled labor was available. During the ten years from 1878 to 1888, the C&O also developed coal resources in the Appalachians and shipped them eastward. Coal became a staple of the C&O's business at that time, and still was over 125 years later under successor [[CSX Transportation]]. Huntington developed his holdings in Newport News, founding the [[Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company]] and helped the small community become one of only two in Virginia to become an [[independent city]] without first having been an [[incorporated town]]. In modern times, Newport News, which merged with the former Warwick County in 1958, has grown to become one of the major cities of [[Hampton Roads]].

Wickham died of heart failure on July 23, 1888, at his Richmond office,<ref name=statue /><ref name=will>{{cite news| url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52820920/the-norfolk-landmark/| title=Virginia Items| newspaper=The Norfolk Landmark| date=August 18, 1888| page=3| via=Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}</ref> and was interred in Hickory Hill Cemetery in Hanover County near [[Ashland, Virginia|Ashland]].<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.hanoverhistorical.org/hickoryhill.html| website=Hanover Country Historical Society| title=Hickory Hill}}</ref> TheNot generallong after Wickham's comradesdeath, employees of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, "all of whom were sincerely devoted to the deceased, whose memory they tenderly cherish and revere," initiated an effort to erect a bronze statue in his memory. As of September of 1889, a committee consisting of ex-Senator John Callahan, C&O.T. employeesDabney, gaveW.B. Waldron, E.C. Meredith, and W.J. Binford partnered with sculptor Edward V. Valentine to create and erect a [[statue of Williams Carter Wickham]] so as to "perpetuate the Cityheroic oflife Richmondand ingallant 1891,deeds whichof wasthe placedlate inGen. [[MonroeWilliam Park]]C. Wickham."<ref>{{cite webnews |title=To the Memory of Wickham url=http://www.discoverrichmond.com/dis/travel/attractions/statues_monuments/article/richmonds_best_known_statues/1196/| archive-url=https://archivechroniclingamerica.today/20110704172923/http://wwwloc.discoverrichmond.comgov/dislccn/travelsn86092009/attractions1889-09-19/statues_monumentsed-1/articleseq-2/richmonds_best_known_statues/1196/| url-status=dead| archiveaccess-date=2011-07-0411 August 2023 |publisher=Logan County Banner (Logan, websiteWV) |date=Discover19 RichmondSeptember 1889}}</ref> The general's comrades and C&O employees gave a [[statue of Williams Carter Wickham]] to the City of Richmond in 1891, which was placed in [[Monroe Park]].<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52820624/the-baltimore-sun/| title=Virginia Affairs: The Wickham Statue Unveiled in the Presence of a Great Crowd| newspaper=The Baltimore Sun| date=October 31, 1891| page=3| via=Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52820855/the-norfolk-landmark/| title=The Wickham Monument| newspaper=The Norfolk Landmark| location=Norfolk, VA| date=October 31, 1891| page=2| via=Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}</ref> Two of the general's descendants, whoClayton doand notWill represent the entire familyWickham, called for the statue's removal in the aftermath of Charlottesville, Virginia's 2017 [[Unite the Right rally]],<ref>{{Cite webnews| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/descendants-of-confederate-general-seek-statues-removal/2017/08/31/6c1308c4-8e3c-11e7-9c53-6a169beb0953_story.html| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170901023721/https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/descendants-of-confederate-general-seek-statues-removal/2017/08/31/6c1308c4-8e3c-11e7-9c53-6a169beb0953_story.html| archive-date=September 1, 2017| title=Descendants of Confederate general seek statue's removal| websitenewspaper=Washington Post| access-date=2017-08-31| agency=Associated Press}}</ref> and participants in 2020's [[George Floyd protests]] defaced and toppled the statue from its pedestal.<ref>{{Cite news| url=https://www.richmond.com/news/local/update-protesters-pull-down-confederate-statue-in-monroe-park/article_8e071910-e47f-5114-bb05-325e39fc20fd.html |title=UPDATE: Protesters pull down Confederate statue in Richmond's Monroe Park| newspaper=Richmond Times-Dispatch| date=June 6, 2020}}</ref>