Confederate service as captain of a company from his county. His company was assigned to the Thirteenth Virginia regiment, which in Elzey's brigade acted a splendid part at the first battle of Manassas. At the battle of Williamsburg, Williams was very conspicuous. He had now been appointed colonel of the First Virginia, and Gen. A. P. Hill says of him on the occasion of a charge made by his command: "It was during this charge that I saw Colonel Williams cheering his men on, and nobly followed by them. In conjunction with one or two companies of the Ninth Alabama he captured a battery of eight guns. . . . He fell severely wounded through the body about 6 o'clock." As soon as his wound would permit he was in the field again. At the time of the battle of Chancellorsville he was in southeast Virginia with the division of Pickett, which was called northward again when Lee began his march into Pennsylvania, reaching Gettysburg in time to lead in the grand charge upon the Union center on the 3d of July. It consisted of the splendid brigades of Barnett, Armistead and Kemper, to which last brigade was attached the First Virginia, led by Colonel Williams. Every one is familiar with the story of the great assault, which has been styled by the Union General Buell, "the hopeless but immortal charge against Cemetery hill." In this desperate fight Colonel Williams received his mortal wound and the services of this gallant officer were lost to Virginia and the South.
Luther J. Williams, of Portsmouth, who went into the war of the Confederacy as a member of the Old Dominion Guard, was born at Portsmouth, August 4, 1831. His father, David Williams, an esteemed citizen of Portsmouth, during the greater part of the century, the son of Wilson and Mary (Avery) Williams, was born in the house in which his son Luther now resides, in 1808 and died in 1894. The mother, Thirza Consolvo, a native of Norfolk, was the daughter of William and Mary (Wright) Consolvo, the father being of Spanish descent. She died in 1889. These parents gave five sons to the Confederate army: Luther J., Lemuel H., William W., Charles C. and David E. The latter's service is elsewhere given, and as is there stated, three of the brothers, Lemuel, William and Charles, gave their lives for the cause. Few families in the South contributed with a more noble generosity to the Confederate cause, or suffered more from the fatalities of war. Luther Williams was reared and educated at his native city, and when the time arrived for him to choose his career in life, became apprenticed with a ship carpenter at Baltimore. Subsequently he was employed in this occupation at the old Gosport navy yard until the breaking out of the war. He was a member of the Old Dominion Guard, famous among the militia commands of Virginia before 1861, and as a private entered the active service on April 19, 1861, serving at once in defense of the navy yard, and afterward on garrison duty at Pinner's Point until the evacuation of Norfolk. The command then marched to Petersburg and was attached to the Ninth Virginia regiment of infantry as Company K. Then moving to the front before Richmond, Private Williams took part in the battle of Seven Pines, and in the fight of June 1, 1862, was wounded in the right foot, the injury being of such a severe character that he was disabled for three months, and at the expiration of that time was detailed for duty in the navy
