[William Babcock]. American soldier, manufacturer and author, born in Bristol, RI, on the 1st of September 1834; educated at Brown University; engaged in manufacturing woolens at Providence; commissioned second-lieutenant in the first battery (1861); enlisted in the Union army, becoming chief of artillery of the division under Brigadier-General Morrell; was present at the siege of Yorktown, and at the engagements at Hanover Court House, Mechanicsville, Gaines Mill and Malvern Hill; after his resignation in 1862, re-engaged in business. He published Morality of Prohibitory Liquor Laws (1875); Social Law of Labor (1882); Economic and Social History of New England, 1620–1789 (1890).
