William Stone (September 4, 1842 – May 22, 1897) was a nineteenth-century
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 (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...
officer, passionate Unionist, dedicated Freedmen's Bureau agent, self-educated attorney, and
Attorney General of South Carolina
The Attorney General of South Carolina is the state's chief legal officer and prosecutor.
History
Alexander Moultrie, half-brother of Revolutionary War figure and future governor William Moultrie, was named the state's first Attorney General un ...
during a turbulent era.
Parentage
William Stone was born on September 4, 1842 in East Machias, Maine. He was the son of Laura Poor Stone, an early anti slavery activist, and
Thomas Treadwell Stone, a prominent Unitarian pastor, fiery abolitionist, and Transcendentalist. William's great grandfather, Thomas Treadwell, fought as a minuteman at
Bunker Hill. Laura Poor Stone's brother,
Henry Varnum Poor
Henry Varnum Poor (December 8, 1812 – January 4, 1905) was an American financial analyst and founder of H.V. and H.W. Poor Co, which later evolved into the financial research and analysis bellwether, Standard & Poor's.
Biography
Born in East A ...
, was one of the founders of the financial rating firm,
Standard and Poor's
S&P Global Ratings (previously Standard & Poor's and informally known as S&P) is an American credit rating agency (CRA) and a division of S&P Global that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks, bonds, and commodities. S&P is consi ...
.
Early life
William spent his early boyhood in
Salem, Massachusetts
Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located on the North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem would become one of the most significant seaports tr ...
, and later in
Bolton, Massachusetts
Bolton is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Bolton is in eastern Massachusetts, located 25 miles west-northwest of downtown Boston. The population was 5,665 at the 2020 census.
History
The town of Bolton was incorpora ...
, to which his family relocated after his father's militant anti-slavery sermons led his resentful Salem parishioners to reject him.
The Stone family finances were largely exhausted by
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
educations for William's two older brothers. William, however, took full advantage of the limited educational resources available in a small
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
town. During this period he adopted strong anti-slavery views of his own. He became a consummate diarist beginning with a boyhood diary in 1858, continuing with a detailed wartime diary 1861 through 1865, and concluding with a comprehensive journal of his key role in
reconstruction
Reconstruction may refer to:
Politics, history, and sociology
*Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company
*'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...
of the post-war South 1866-1868.
His interest in the greater world in which he lived is typified by a letter to his father in late 1860 in which he predicted
Lincoln
Lincoln most commonly refers to:
* Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States
* Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England
* Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S.
* Lincoln ...
's election as president. His 18-year-old crystal ball proved murky, however, when in the same letter he predicted with all the assurance of youthful bravado that the "fire eaters of South Carolina" would never follow through on their threat to secede if Lincoln were elected.
Civil War Service
Confederate cannons fired on
Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter is a sea fort built on an artificial island protecting Charleston, South Carolina from naval invasion. Its origin dates to the War of 1812 when the British invaded Washington by sea. It was still incomplete in 1861 when the Battl ...
in
Charleston Harbor on April 12, 1861, and William Stone's boyhood diary records that on May 8 he signed up as an eighteen-year-old volunteer to subdue the Rebellion. After seven weeks of drilling with other volunteers, he "went into camp" on June 28, 1861 as a private in the Nineteenth Massachusetts Infantry Regiment.
Stone fought in major
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
battles at
Savage Station
Savage is a passenger rail station on the MARC Train#Camden Line, MARC Camden Line between Union Station (Washington, D.C.), Union Station and Camden Yards station, Baltimore's Camden Station. It is officially located at 9009 Dorsey Run Road in S ...
,
Antietam
The Battle of Antietam (), or Battle of Sharpsburg particularly in the Southern United States, was a battle of the American Civil War fought on September 17, 1862, between Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and Union ...
,
Chancellorsville, and
Gettysburg. After sustaining a severe wound at Antietam, he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant. Following his third wound at Gettysburg, he was posted to an administrative position in Philadelphia.
Freedmen's Bureau Service
At the close of the war in 1865, Stone elected to stay in the army. In early 1866, now a
brevet
Brevet may refer to:
Military
* Brevet (military), higher rank that rewards merit or gallantry, but without higher pay
* Brevet d'état-major, a military distinction in France and Belgium awarded to officers passing military staff college
* Aircre ...
Major
Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...
, he was assigned to the newly created
Freedmen's Bureau
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, usually referred to as simply the Freedmen's Bureau, was an agency of early Reconstruction, assisting freedmen in the South. It was established on March 3, 1865, and operated briefly as a ...
. Designed by Congress to bridge the gap between slavery and citizenship for some four million largely illiterate African Americans, the Bureau represented America's first great
social engineering project. As an agent of the Bureau in South Carolina, Stone struggled (against the violent resistance of the planter class and the
Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...
) to achieve the Bureau's objectives of education, equality in the courts, and fair labor standards for the newly freed slaves. He frequently presided over provost courts to ensure fair treatment of freedmen in legal disputes, and was instrumental in establishing schools for children of former slaves in his part of South Carolina.
Marriage and Children
In 1869, Major Stone married Mary Taylor, a
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
from
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
who had been assigned by the
Society of Friends
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...
to teach black children in South Carolina. They proceeded to have two sons, Alfred and
Herbert
Herbert may refer to:
People Individuals
* Herbert (musician), a pseudonym of Matthew Herbert
Name
* Herbert (given name)
* Herbert (surname)
Places Antarctica
* Herbert Mountains, Coats Land
* Herbert Sound, Graham Land
Australia
* Herbert ...
(who went on to become editor and publisher of
Yachting
Yachting is the use of recreational boats and ships called ''yachts'' for racing or cruising. Yachts are distinguished from working ships mainly by their leisure purpose. "Yacht" derives from the Dutch word '' jacht'' ("hunt"). With sailboats, t ...
and who was instrumental in re-establishing the Bermuda Yacht Races).
Legal and political career
In 1870, Stone resigned from the army and, aided by his extensive self-study, his agile mind, and driving ambition, was certified to practice law in South Carolina. Following a successful law career in
Charleston, he became active in state politics and, in 1876, was appointed by Governor
Daniel Henry Chamberlain
Daniel Henry Chamberlain (June 23, 1835April 13, 1907) was an American planter, lawyer, author and the 76th Governor of South Carolina from 1874 until 1876 or 1877. The federal government withdrew troops from the state and ended Reconstruction ...
as Attorney General for South Carolina.
[Appointment document dated May 4, 1876. Original in Stone Family Archives.]
Final Years
When Governor Chamberlain's re-election was overturned by
Wade Hampton Wade Hampton may refer to the following people:
People
*Wade Hampton I (1752–1835), American soldier in Revolutionary War and War of 1812 and U.S. congressman
*Wade Hampton II (1791–1858), American plantation owner and soldier in War of 1812
*W ...
in 1877, Stone returned with his family to the North, and established a highly successful career as an attorney in New York City. He died in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
in 1897, and is buried next to his wife in the Quaker Cemetery in Longwood Gardens, Pennsylvania.
Notes
References
*Adams, John G. B. ''Reminiscences of the Nineteenth Massachusetts Regiment''. Boston Wright & Potter Printing Company 1899.
*Edgar, Walter. ''South Carolina: A History''. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1998.
*
Foner, Eric. ''
Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877''. New York: Harper & Row, 1988.
*Suzanne Stone Johnson, Robert Johnson, introduction by Dr. Lou Falkner Williams, Kansas State University, '' Bitter Freedom William Stone's Record of Service in the Freedmen's Bureau''. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2008.
*Williams, Lou Falkner. ''The Great South Carolina Ku Klux Klan Trials'', 1871-1872, Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1996.
*Zuczek, Richard. ''State of Rebellion: Reconstruction in South Carolina''. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1996
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, William
1842 births
1897 deaths
People from East Machias, Maine
People from Salem, Massachusetts
People of the Reconstruction Era
United States Army officers
Union Army officers
South Carolina Attorneys General
People of Massachusetts in the American Civil War
People of Maine in the American Civil War
People from Bolton, Massachusetts
19th-century American politicians