James Monroe Williams
James Monroe Williams (September 12, 1833 – February 15, 1907) was an American lawyer, soldier, and merchant. He served both as a cavalry and as an infantry officer in the Union Army within the Trans-Mississippi Theater during the American Civil War, and was breveted a brigadier general near the end of the conflict. Williams also helped organize and was the initial commander of the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment, the first unit of USCT soldiers to see combat. Following the war, Williams remained a soldier until resigning in 1871 to become a rancher, then re-entered the service briefly about twenty years later, and afterwards became a merchant. Early life James M. Williams was born in 1833 in Lowville, New York, and later became a lawyer in that state. Civil War service On July 12, 1861, Williams entered the Union Army as a captain in the 5th Kansas Cavalry Regiment, and was appointed commander of Company F. The unit was organized at Leavenworth, Kansas, beginning that summer and into January of the following year. Williams and his regiment served in the Department of Kansas through June 1862, and then with the Department of Missouri that July. Williams resigned from the 5th