[William Hemsley]. American soldier, born in Queen Anne County, MD, on the 9th of September 1811. He graduated at West Point in 1831, became an engineer and artillerist, and was on General Kearny’s staff during the Mexican War. In 1853 he was commissioner to run the boundary between the United States and Mexico under the Gadsden Treaty. After several years’ service in Utah and Kansas he resigned from the army May 9, 1861, but was re-commissioned as lieutenant-colonel of the Sixth Cavalry five days later, and took part in the Peninsular campaign. He became brigadier-general of volunteers in March 1862, commanded a division under General Banks in Louisiana, and commanded the Nineteenth Army Corps in the Red River campaign in 1864, and later in the Shenandoah valley, where he successfully resisted Jubal A. Early. He received successive brevets, in the regular army, of brigadier-general and major-general, and became major-general of volunteers, September 25, 1865. From 1865 to 1875 he held departmental commands, and he was retired in 1876 with the rank of brigadier-general. He died in Washington, DC, on the 1st of December 1887.
