Williams, Otho Holland

WILLIAMS, OTHO HOLLAND. (1749–1794). Continental general. Maryland. Born in Prince Georges County, Maryland, in March 1749, Williams worked in the county clerk's office at Baltimore from 1767 until 1774, when he returned to his home in Frederick to start a commercial career. The Revolution interfered with those plans. On 22 June 1775 he became lieutenant in Captain Thomas Price's Frederick City Rifle Corps and marched with it to join the Boston army. When the Virginia and Maryland riflemen were combined to form Colonel Hugh Stephenson's regiment on 27 June 1776, Williams was made major of that unit and after Stephenson's death that August succeeded him as commander. At Fort Washington, New York, on 16 November 1776, he received a serious wound in the groin and was taken prisoner. He was initially on parole in New York City but was confined on suspicion of secretly corresponding with Washington. Sharing a cell with Ethan Allen, he was not exchanged until 16 January 1778, by which time his health had been permanently impaired by inadequate food and harsh treatment. Meanwhile, however, he had been promoted to colonel of the Sixth Maryland on 10 December 1776, and he led that unit in the Monmouth campaign.

On 16 April 1780 he left Morristown, New Jersey, with the force of Continental troops being led by De Kalb into the southern theater. As a result of the Camden campaign of July and August, Colonel Williams became well-known not only as an outstanding combat commander but also as the author of the informative and well-written Narrative of the Campaign of 1780, published in 1822. Serving as assistant adjutant general to Gates, he performed brilliantly at Camden on 16 August. In the reorganization preceding the arrival of Greene, Williams was put in command of a special corps of light troops. Greene made him adjutant general, however, and Williams was with the left wing of the army at Cheraw when Daniel Morgan led the light troops on the maneuver that resulted in the victory at Cowpens.

When Morgan declined to take command of the rear guard of elite troops that Greene formed to cover his race for the Dan, Williams was given this vital duty. Williams accomplished his hazardous mission brilliantly. He then led the return of Greene's army into North Carolina, frustrating an attempt by Cornwallis to surprise and annihilate him at Wetzell's Mills on 6 March 1781. He played a distinguished part in the Battles of Guilford on 15 March, Hobkirk's Hill on 25 April, and particularly at Eutaw Springs on 8 September 1781. Although he commanded a brigade of Continentals in each of these three major engagements, he was not promoted to brigadier general until 9 May 1782. He retired on 16 January 1783, having been elected naval officer of the Baltimore district on the 6th. He became collector of the port of Baltimore and a successful merchant. In May 1792 he declined the post of second-in-command of the U.S. Army with the rank of brigadier general because of ill health. He died on 15 July 1794 at Miller's Town, Virginia.

SEE ALSO Camden Campaign; Eutaw Springs, South Carolina; Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina; Hobkirk's Hill (Camden), South Carolina; Southern Campaigns of Nathanael Greene; Southern Theater, Military Operations in; Wetzell's Mills, North Carolina.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Williams, Otho, Papers. Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Maryland.

                              revised by Michael Bellesiles