Civil War Union Brevet Brigadier General, Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient. When the Civil War began, he enlisted in the 1st Michigan Infantry and was commissioned Captain. Colonel William H. Withington, commanding 17th Michigan Infantry: One of the many Union soldiers captured following the debacle following the First Battle of Bull Run, William Withington, then a captain in the 1st Michigan, was held in a Rebel prison camp until January 1862 when he was finally exchanged. Withington was sent back to Michigan to recruit more men for the war and upon raising the 17th Michigan, he was appointed its Colonel. The 17th Michigan would train at Fort Wayne until late August 1862 when it was sent east to reinforce George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac and assist in pushing the Confederate army out of Maryland. The regiment would be assigned to the brigade of Colonel Benjamin Christ in the 1st Division, 9th Army Corps. The first battle this regiment would participate in would be at South Mountain. In the afternoon of the 14th, the 17th was deployed on the right of the Old Sharpsburg Road facing west across Wise's North Field. In front of them were the men of 50th and 51st Georgia of Drayton's Brigade and the Jeff Davis Artillery of Captain James Bondurant. Just before the Union attack was to commence, the Confederates themselves attack. The Georgians were pulled out of their position and moved into the road uncovering Bondurant's battery. With orders to advance, Withington pushed his men forward against Bondurant's battery and into the left flank of Drayton's Georgians in the Old Sharpsburg Road. The attack surprised Drayton's men and with the advance of Union units on their left, the 17th Michigan got behind the Georgians trapping them in a 3-sided kill zone. The Georgians returned fire the best they could but it was suicide to attempt to stand. The Michigan men had precipitated a Confederate rout. The regiment killed and wounded dozens of Confederate troops while capturing many more. The loss for the regiment in this fight was 27 killed and 114 wounded out of 500 who were taken into the fight. The regiment earned the "Stonewall Regiment" nickname following its capture and rout of those Confederates behind the stonewall in Wise's North Field despite the regiment receiving less than a months worth of training. Colonel Withington was breveted a Brigadier General for his leadership at South Mountain. He would be either mustered out or he resigned in early 1863. Following the war, he would serve several terms in the Michigan Legislature as both a representative and senator. He would receive the Medal of Honor in the 1890's for his actions in tending and remaining with his superior officer, Colonel Orlando Willcox, after Willcox was wounded and the two came under heavy fire at the Battle of First Bull Run. He would pass away in 1903 at the age of 68.
his obituary WILLIAM HERBERT WITHINGTON, soldier, manufacturer and capitalist, was born at Dorchester, Mass., February 1, 1835, son of William and Elizabeth W. (Ford) Withington. His earliest paternal American ancestor was Henry Withington, who came from England, in 1635, with the company of Rev. Richard Mather (q.v.), the first minister at Dorchester, in whose church Henry Withington was ruling elder. Rev. William Withington, father of the subject, was an eloquent and powerful preacher, and a mathematician and linguist of more than ordinary attainments. The son received his education in the public schools of Boston and at Phillips (Andover) Academy. He then became a salesman in a Boston leather store and later bookkeeper for the North Wayne Scythe Company. In 1857 he entered the employ of Pinney & Lamson, manufacturers of agricultural implements, at Jackson, Mich. He had charge not only of the office, but the shops of an extensive plant employing many workmen and a large corps of traveling salesmen. In 1858 they sold out to the newly organized firm of Sprague, Withington & Company, afterwards the Withington & Cooley Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of farm and garden tools, whose trade extends to Australia, South America and throughout Q Europe. He was also president of the Q Union Bank, Grand River Valley Railroad Q Company, and the Jackson Vehicle Company, Jackson; Withington Handle Company, Fort Wayne and Huntington, Ind.; Withington & Russell Company, Nashville, Tenn.; Geneva (Ohio) Tool Company; Oneida Farm Tool Company, Utica, N. Y.; Webster Wagon Company, Moundsville, W. Va.; National Snath Company, Erie, Pa., and the Steel Goods Association, New York City. Since 1875 he was also a director in the Iowa Farming Tool Company, Fort Madison, Iowa. In 1902, when nearly all the manufacturers of agricultural implements merged, he was chosen president, and thereafter a large part of his time was spent in Cleveland, Ohio. His interest in military affairs was enthusiastic, and he aided in organizing the Jackson Grays, of which he was captain at the outbreak of the civil war. The Grays answered Lincoln's first call for troops, and became Company B, 1st Michigan Volunteer Infantry. He was assigned to the Army of the Potomac and participated in the capture of Alexandria, Va.; was taken prisoner at the first battle of Bull Run, being confined at Richmond, Charleston and Columbia, but was later exchanged and returned to Jackson. He was awarded one of the congressional medals of honor for special service at Bull Run—for "most distinguished gallantry in voluntarily remaining on the field, under heavy fire, to aid and succor your superior officer." Later he was appointed colonel of the 17th Michigan regiment, and was immediately sent into the Maryland campaign under McClellan. At South Mountain he made a splendid charge upon the stone walls behind which the enemy with its batteries was posted, drove confederates down the slope of the mountain, and captured 300 prisoners, but, lost more than a hundred of his own men. Similar valor was displayed at Antietam by his "Stonewall regiment" as it came to be called, and he continued in command until March, 1863, when he resigned his commission. Immediately following was made brevet brigadier-general for "Conspicuous gallantry" at the battle of South Mountain, being one of the youngest men in the Federal army on whom so high an honor was conferred. He became a dominant factor in civic and municipal affairs, as well as in Republican politics. After serving as alderman, he was elected to the Michigan house of representatives in 1873, and was a member also of the special session of 1874. He was the originator of a bill providing for the creation of an effective state militia: became colonel of the first regiment formed in accordance therewith, and when the state troops were organized into a brigade, 1879, he was appointed brigadier-general, resigning in 1883. He was state senator during 1891-1892, and was delegate to the National Republican conventions of 1876 and 1892. For four years he was a member of the Republican state central committee. He was a member of the board of trustees of the Michigan Asylum for the Insane, Kalamazoo, and of the board of managers of the Soldier's Home, Grand Rapids; was president of the Jackson board of trade; an organizer and president of the Young Men's Library Association, and president of the Jackson Public Library. He was past department commander of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, and a member also of the Grand Army of the Republic, Masonic Fraternity, and the Michigan and Detroit clubs, Jackson. For 42 years he was Vestryman and for 22 years warden of St Paul's Protestant Episcopal parish, and was twice delegate to the triennial general convention of his church. He was sturdy of character, and his success was built on a foundation of intelligence, zeal, integrity, loyalty and comradeship. He was married, June 6 1859 to Julia C., daughter of Joseph E Beebe, a manufacturer of Jackson Michigan.; she survives him with three children Phillip H of Cleveland; Winthrop Jackson, and Kate Winifred, wife of Dr. Flemming Carrow, Traverse City Michigan., June 27, 1906
Medal of Honor Citation
Rank and organization: Captain, Company B, 1st Michigan Infantry. Place and date: At Bull Run, Va., 21 July 1861._ Entered service at: Jackson, Mich. Born: 1 February 1835, Dorchester, Mass. Date of issue: 7 January 1895. Citation: The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Captain (Infantry) William Herbert Withington, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 21 July 1861, while serving with Company B, 1st Michigan Infantry, in action at Bull Run, Virginia. Captain Withington remained on the field under heavy fire to succor his superior officer.
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