After the war, Averell was appointed by President Andrew Johnson as a diplomat to British North America, serving 1866 to 1869. Also an entrepreneur and inventor with interests in the coal, steel and related infrastructure industry, Averell became wealthy by inventing an improved technique for laying asphalt pavement.
He co-wrote a history of the Third Pennsylvania Cavalry, Sixtieth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers during the Civil War years; it was published in 1905. He wrote a memoir of his Army years from 1851 to 1862 but did not publish it and the manuscript was lost for a time. It was discovered in the late 20th century and published in an annotated edition in 1978.
Early years
Averell was born in Cameron, New York.[2] As a boy, he worked as a drugstore clerk in the nearby town of Bath.[2]
Col. William W. Averell (sitting) of 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry with staff in August 1862
After the capture of Fort Sumter, Lt. 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 to join the fighting.[3][4]
As Confederate Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry rode around the Union Army and raided Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, Averell returned in time to lead his brigade in pursuit. PresidentAbraham Lincoln appointed Averell a brigadier general of volunteers on September 26, 1862 to rank from that date.[6] Lincoln had to nominate Averell three times before the U.S. Senate confirmed the appointment on March 11, 1863.[6]
During the Battle of Fredericksburg, Averell commanded the Cavalry Brigade of the Center Grand Division of the Army of the Potomac. He ascended to division command—the 2nd division of the Cavalry Corps—on February 12, 1863. His division fought the Battle of Kelly's Ford on March 17, 1863, notable as the first engagement in which Union cavalrymen claimed victory against their Confederate counterparts. But the 2nd Division's reputation was diminished as it participated in Maj. Gen.George Stoneman's fruitless cavalry raid in the Battle of Chancellorsville six weeks later. On May 2, 1863, Union Army commander Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker relieved Averell of his command due to his slow performance during the raid. Hooker subsequently sent a report to the Adjutant General that said: "General Averell's command numbered about 4,000 sabers and a light battery, a larger cavalry force than can be found in the rebel army between Fredericksburg and Richmond, and yet that officer seems to have contented himself between April 29th, and May 4th, with having marched through Culpeper to Rapidan, a distance of twenty-eight miles, meeting no enemy deserving the name, and from that point reporting to me for instructions."[7]
Averell left the Army of the Potomac after his relief at Chancellorsville. He fought a series of minor engagements in the Department of West Virginia at the brigade and division level. In November 1863, he conducted what is called Averell's West Virginia Raid against the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad. He received a brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel in the regular army for the Battle of Droop Mountain in West Virginia on November 6, 1863, and to colonel for actions at Salem, Virginia, on December 15, 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. Returning to West Virginia, Averell later commanded a cavalry division under Maj. Gen. David Hunter in his failed raid on Lynchburg, known as the Battle of Lynchburg.
In the summer of 1864, when CSA Lt. Gen.Jubal Early had invaded Maryland and defeated a series of Union commanders, 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 Maj. Gen. Stephen D. Ramseur at the Battle of Rutherford's (Carter's) Farm on July 20, 1864, inflicting 400 casualties and capturing a four-gun battery, in spite of Averell's being significantly outnumbered. When CSA Brig. Gen. 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,[8] capturing hundreds of prisoners and another four-gun battery in the Battle of Moorefield.
During the Valley Campaigns of 1864 against Early, Averell fought under Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan. He was relieved of command a second time in his career on September 23, 1864, following a dispute with Sheridan about Averell's actions after the Battle of Fisher's Hill. This incident truly devastated him and he could not hide his misery. A staff officer wrote "I saw General Averell sitting in front of his tent ... He was dreadfully depressed and broken. I believe he started for the rear within a few moments after we 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 May 18, 1865.[9]
On July 17, 1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated Averell for appointment to the grades of brevetbrigadier general and brevetmajor general in the regular army, to rank from March 13, 1865. The U.S. Senate confirmed the appointments on July 23, 1866.[10] The latter appointment was in recognition of Averell's actions at the Battle of Kelly's Ford.
Postbellum career
Following the Civil War, President Johnson appointed Averell as U.S. consul general to British North America; he served from 1866 to 1869, through the rest of that administration.[2] 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 was also appointed as Assistant Inspector General of Soldiers Homes (1888-1898).[11]
Averell was an entrepreneur and an inventor, working in the fields of coal, steel and eventually paving materials. His businesses and his inventions of practical devices generated a handsome income. Among his inventions were methods for manufacturing steel castings and insulated electrical cable, but he is best known for his work in techniques of laying asphalt pavement. Averell had become interested in asphalt as early as 1870, when some experimental pavement, based on the procedures patented by Edward de Smedt, a Belgian engineer and chemist, was laid in New York City and Newark, New Jersey. Although Averell observed problems with these installations, he was convinced of the potential of asphalt paving. As president of the Grahamite Asphalt Pavement Company, he began studying the existing product and procedures and experimenting with ways to improve them. Eventually, he developed improved techniques for laying pavement, which he patented in 1878 as "Improvement in Asphaltic Pavement."[11]
Averell was among career officers who wrote memoirs and histories of military units: he wrote Ten Years in the Saddle (1978)[12] and co-authored History of the Third Pennsylvania Cavalry, 60th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers (1905).[13] 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.
House, Kirk (November 2018). "Steuben County People on the Maps of Two Worlds". Steuben Echoes. 44 (4). The Steuben County Historical Society: 9. ISSN1544-4880.
Jones, J. William, ed. (1906). "Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 34". Perseus Digital Library. Southern Historical Society. Retrieved December 3, 2024. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
