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Admiral Dahlgren to storm Fort Sumter, and on the night of 8 Sept., 1863, commanded the first division of boats with sailors and marines in that attack. He was captured and sent as prisoner to Columbia, S. C, where he remained for one year until exchanged. He was promoted to commander, 25 July, 1866, served at the rendezvous at Boston, 1865-'6, and on ordnance duty at Boston and New York, 1866-8. On 9 Feb., 1869, he took command of the steamer " Oneida " on the Asiatic station. He sailed from Yokohama at 4.30 p. m., 24 Jan., 1870, and at 6.30 p. m. his vessel was run down by the English mail-steamer " Bombay " and sank in fifteen minutes. The " Bombay " was not injured, and, after backing out to clear her sharp stern from the " Oneida," she steamed away without waiting to give assistance or heeding signals of distress. Twenty-two officers and 115 men were lost, 2 officers and 37 men were saved. Capt. Williams stood on the bridge and refused to leave his ship when he was urged to do so by those in the boat. The secretary of the navy said in his official report to congress that, after a thorough investigation of the collision, he concluded that the disaster was due to the reck- lessness and bad navigation of the English steam- er. Another theory was that the captain of the " Bombay" mistook the " Oneida" for a rival mer- chant steamer of the American Pacific mail line, and ran into her purposely.

WILLIAMS, Edwin, author, b. in Norwich, Conn., 7 March, 1797: d. in New York city, 21 Oct., 1854. His father, Joseph, was extensively en- gaged as a shipping and importing merchant, and was a general of Connecticut militia. The son re- moved to New York, was for many years secretary of the American institute, and actively connected with the historical, geographical, and statistical so- cieties. He contributed constantly to periodicals, published " The New York Annual Register " in 1830-'45, and was the author of " The Politician's Manual " (New York, 1832-'4) ; " New Universal Gazetteer" (1833); "Book of the Constitution" (1833) ; '• New York as it Is " (1833) ; " Arctic Voy- ages " (1835) ; " The Fashionable Puzzler " (1835) ; " The Statesman's Manual " (1838, many editions : continued after his death by Benson J. Lossing) : " Truths in Relation to the Erie Railroad " (1842) ; "Political History of Ireland" (1843); "Wheat Trade of the United States and Europe " (1846) ; "Presidents of the United States" (1849); and " The Twelve Stars of the Republic " (1850). With C. Edwards Lester he issued " The Napoleon Dy- nasty, or History of the Bonaparte Family " (1852).

WILLIAMS, Elisha, lawver, b. in Pomfret, Conn., 29 Aug., 1773; d. in New York city, 29 June, 1833. He studied law with Judge Tapping Reeve in Litchfield, Conn., and with Chief-Justice Spencer, of Hudson, N. Y., was admitted to the bar in June, 1793, and began practice at Spencertown, N. Y., but removed to Hudson in 1800. In 1815 he founded the town of Waterloo, N. Y., which he named immediately after the battle of Waterloo, and in 1830, leaving the bar on account of feeble health, he removed there with his family. The expense of building the court-house in that town was borne chiefly by him. He exerted great politi- cal influence in Columbia county, N. Y., in the Federal party, was frequently elected to the as- sembly, and was an active member of the New York constitutional convention of 1821. Mr. Will- iams won a reputation which, during his lifetime, placed him at the head of American orators and high among the nisi prius lawyers of the country. His power over a jury was astonishing, and his delivery was remarkable for force and elegance. In this respect he ranked, in his day, as the equal, if not the superior of Rufus Choate. In appear- ance Mr. Williams's form was erect, his shoulders were square, and he was more than six feet in height. His eyes were dark and sparkling and his forehead high and straight. His manners were courteous and bland.

WILLIAMS, Elkanah, physician, b. in Law- rence county, Ind., 19 Dec, 1822 ; d. in Hazle- wood, Pa., 5 Oct., 1888. His father, Isaac Williams, was a captain in the war of 1812 and one of the earliest settlers of Indiana. The son was edu- cated at Bedford seminary, the State university at Bloomington, and at Asbury university, where he was graduated in 1847. He took his medical de- gree at the University of Louisville in 1850, prac- tised -in Indiana, and in 1852-'3 spent eighteen months in the study of ophthalmology in Paris, London, Prague, Vienna, and Berlin. He returned to Cincinnati in 1855 and began practice as a spe- cialist in diseases of the eye and ear, being the first regular physician in the United States to confine his practice strictly to those branches. Soon after- ward he became associated as a clinical lecturer in Miami medical college, and in 1860 he was given the chair of ophthalmology, the first of the kind in the United States, and held it for many years. He was ophthalmic surgeon to the Commercial hos- pital in Cincinnati in 1862-'72, and early in the civil war was appointed assistant surgeon to the U. S. marine hospital, which post he held till the close of the war. He attended the international ophthalmic congress at Paris in 1862, where he read a paper on " Plusieurs questions de therapeutique," and in 1872 attended a similar meeting at London. In 1876 he was elected president of the ophthalmic con- gress in New York. Dr. Williams was also elected president of the Ohio state medical society in 1875.

WILLIAMS, Ephraim, soldier, b. in Newton, Mass., 24 Feb., 1715; d. near Lake George, N. Y., 8 Sept., 1755. In early years he was a sailor, and made several voyages to Europe ; but he afterward joined the army and served in Canada in the war of 1740-'8 against the French, attaining the rank of captain. In 1750 the government of Massachusetts granted him 200 acres of land in the present townships of Adams and Williamstown, upon which, in the following year, he erected Fort Massachusetts, and was appointed commander of the whole line of frontier posts west of Connecticut river. In 1755, on the renewal of the war between France and England, he led a regiment of Massa- chusetts troops to join Sir William Johnson, who was on his way to invade Canada. At Albany, un- der a present- iment of ear- ly death, he made a will leaving the bulk of his landed and other proper- ty to found a free school at Williams- town. On 8 Sept., 1755, at

the head of

1,200 men, while making a reconnoissance of Baron Dieskau's advancing force, he fell into an ambuscade of the enemy near the head of Lake George, and, at the first volley, was shot through the head.