George Forrester Williams (1837–December 31, 1920) was a soldier, military adviser and journalist who worked as managing editor of the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' from 1870 to 1873. Williams was born in 1837 in Gibraltar to a military family. After living in the

East Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around ...

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

and on the African

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

, he arrived in New York City at age 13 following the death of his parents. He found work at the ''New York Times'' and stayed there until the start of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

. He joined the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. It proved essential to th ...

, rising from private to brevet major and was wounded at the battles of

Malvern Hill Malvern Hill stands on the north bank of the James River in Henrico County, Virginia, USA, about eighteen miles southeast of Richmond. On 1 July 1862, it was the scene of the Battle of Malvern Hill, one of the Seven Days Battles of the Americ ...

and the Wilderness. In the last year of the war, he served as a war correspondent for the ''Times''. After the Confederate surrender, he traveled to Mexico to cover the ending of the

Second French intervention in Mexico The Second French Intervention in Mexico ( es, Segunda intervención francesa en México), also known as the Second Franco-Mexican War (1861–1867), was an invasion of Mexico, launched in late 1862 by the Second French Empire, which hoped to ...

and attended the execution of Maximilian I of Mexico. He subsequently worked as a military adviser for Guatemala and Peru before returning to New York in 1870, where he was named managing editor of the ''New York Times''. After leaving the ''Times'', he became managing editor of the '' New York Herald'' from 1875–1876 and later served in various capacities for other New York newspapers, including the ''World'' and ''

Recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...

''. He published several books: * ''Bullet and Shell: A Soldier's Romance'' (1882), a novelized, fictionalized telling of the Civil War from the perspective of ordinary soldiers. * ''Lights and Shadows of Army Life'' * ''Famous War Generals on Horseback'' * ''The Memorial War Book'' (1894), a pictorial history of the Civil War

References

People from the British West Indies 1920 deaths 1837 births The New York Times editors American war correspondents 19th-century American journalists Journalists from New York City People of New York (state) in the American Civil War Immigrants to the United States {{Gibraltar-bio-stub