This image is the cover for the book Michigan's Civil War Citizen-General, Civil War Series

Michigan's Civil War Citizen-General, Civil War Series

With vivid battlefield accounts based on extensive primary research, award-winning author Jack Dempsey's masterful biography tells the amazing story of an unsung hero.


Detroit's Alpheus Starkey Williams never tired in service to his city or his country. A veteran of the Mexican-American War, he was a preeminent military figure in Michigan before the Civil War. He was key to the Lost Order, the Battle of Gettysburg, the March to the Sea and the Carolinas Campaign. His generalship at Antietam made possible the Emancipation Proclamation, and Meade and Sherman relied on his unshakable leadership. A steady hand in wartime and in peacetime, Williams was a Yale graduate, lawyer, judge, editor, municipal official, militia officer, diplomat and congressman who stood on principle over party.

Jack Dempsey

Jack Dempsey is author of the award-winning Michigan and the Civil War: A Great and Bloody Sacrifice and co-author (with Brian James Egen) of Michigan at Antietam. Serving on the Michigan Historical Commission from 2007 to 2018, he was its president from 2012 to 2017 and chair of its Civil War Sesquicentennial Committee. He is a member of the Clarke Historical Library Board of Governors and an appointee to the Michigan World War I Centennial Commission. Born in Detroit, he lives in Plymouth Township with his wife of forty-four years, Suzzanne.

The History Press