William Woods Averell.

                                        

William Woods Averell.

Birth: Nov. 5, 1832.
Death: Feb. 3, 1900.

Civil War Union Brigadier General. Born in Cameron, Steuben County, New York, he graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York in 1855, placing 26th in his class. He became a 2nd Lieutenant, was assigned to the United States Army Mounted Rifles, and served in the Indian Wars on the Western frontier. He was severely wounded in a fight with Navajo in 1859. When the Civil War began, he became a 1st Lieutenant with the Mounted Riflemen and was placed on staff duty in Washington, D.C. In August, 1861, he was appointed as Colonel of the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry and soon became a Brigadier General. During 1863, he initiated several cavalry raids in Western Virginia. His cavalry raided Confederate General James Longstreet's supply base on the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad on December 16, 1863. He was then placed in command of the 2nd Cavalry Division and was wounded near Wytheville, Virginia.

He resigned after the war and was appointed as Consul General of the United States in the British provinces of North America from 1866 to 1869. In 1869, he became president of a manufacturing company and an industrial inventor. He discovered a process for the manufacture of steel directly from ore in one operation in 1870. He invented the American Asphalt Pavement in 1879 and had patents for several insulating conduits for wires and conductors. He also invented a machine for laying electric conductors underground. He died in Bath, New York in 1900 when he was 67 years old.
Burial: Grove Cemetery, Bath, Steuben County, New York.