On May 16, 1861, he was elected colonel of what would become the 12th North Carolina State Troops. The regiment included two companies from Warren County and two more from Granville County. The other six companies came from Catawba, Cleveland, Duplin, Halifax, Nash, and Robeson Counties. After leaving the camp of instruction at Garysburg, the troops were assigned to the defense forces around Norfolk, Virginia. This garrison duty soon had a major effect on the discipline within the regiment. Little more than a month after their arrival, Pvt. William H. Burwell reported to his father that “there is no duty to be performed in camp except ‘dress parade.’”³⁵

Further attempts by the officers to resume regular training during their stay were greeted with derision. Sergeant Pitcher described one drill session carried out by their lieutenant colonel as “one of the greatest farces I ever saw, he not being sufficiently versed in military tactics to command a regiment.” Another soldier noted in the early spring of 1862 that the men did “scarsely any drilling” at all by that point. Even the few training exercises that took place most often lasted no more than five or 10 minutes. “The men made fun of such drilling,” he declared in a letter home.³⁶

Sergeant Walter A. Montgomery noted that many of the problems occurred because the regiment “embraced in considerable proportion a class of men of education, of social refinement and wealth, who mingled freely on terms of social equality with field and staff and company officers, and military discipline was thereby rendered impossible.” The task of maintaining order was further complicated by their close proximity to town. “The camp was the constant scene of gayety, and the City of Norfolk was daily thronged with members of the regiment on social visits to the citizens,” he explained.³⁷

The townspeople treated the soldiers from the 12th North Carolina as heroes from the moment of their arrival. A group of citizens staged a concert for the troops in the opera house, and several young girls held a fair for their benefit. Some of the local women even mended the men’s clothes and darned their socks. Many others regularly visited the nearby army camp with gifts of fruit and other delicacies. A delegation of young ladies from the town also presented them with a new battle flag as a “testimonial of their appreciation and esteem.” Pitcher noted happily in his diary that the ceremony was attended by “the majority of Norfolks fair daughters.”³⁸

The atmosphere during the off-hours often resembled that of a huge party rather than a military camp. “Our service at Norfolk was that of holiday soldiers,” Sgt. Montgomery admitted. “We visited the city whenever we wished, were in almost daily communication with our homes, and had frequent visits from our friends and members of our families.” He noted that the men “formed friendships and social relationships with the people of the city, and kept our trunks filled with citizen’s wearing apparel, including dress-suits and thin longlegged boots, then the fashionable footwear.”³⁹

The situation spun so out of control that guards were posted around the main camp to keep the men from going into town without the passes. At least one soldier acknowledged that some restrictions were needed to maintain order in the ranks. “Of course no sensible man can complain,” he admitted in a letter to his cousin during the early fall of 1861. “For you know as near the city as we are if there was not some restraint put upon the men going to the city that more of them would go up there and get drunk & play thunder generally.”⁴⁰

The growing lack of discipline eventually spread all the way to some of the top officers in the 12th North Carolina. In one major incident, Colonel Williams dismissed the regiment’s commissary officer, who was his cousin, after he “spoke very insultingly” to him in public. Behind the scenes, the problems between the two relatives extended far beyond this single confrontation. “It is also reported that he spoke very insultingly of the Col’s family behind his back,” Cpl. Harry Williams, another one of the colonel’s cousins, explained in a letter to his parents.

Many others in the regiment blamed the trouble on the colonel himself. Corporal Williams informed his parents that “it is thought by some that the Col was somewhat under the influence of whiskey” during the confrontation between the two officers. While not sure whether to believe the story, Cpl. Williams admitted that he would “hate to fight under a drinking Col, even if he is my first cousin.” Colonel Williams reported in a letter to his uncle only that he “regretted very much that he acted as he did toward me and the family and only did what I was forced to do in my defence.”⁴¹

During early winter, the bulk of the men moved into camp a few miles from town in “a thick grove of pine trees” near Sewell’s Point opposite the Federal naval base at Hampton Roads, Virginia. From there, the men were in a perfect position to keep a close watch on the enemy’s activities. “By walking one-half a mile we had a good view of Fortress Monroe and the Ripraps, and we could very often hear the United States Marine Band playing at dress parade, and could see the ships and other vessels moving to and fro,” one soldier recalled.⁴²

As spring approached, they also had frequent opportunities to observe the ironclad warship Merrimac in action. One of the men informed his brother that he “expected certainly to see the huge old sea monster to day ‘walking the water like a thing of life.’” Another soldier reported in a letter home that “the beach was for a mile and half covered with men” when the Merrimac finally engaged the blockading Federal fleet outside Norfolk, setting one frigate on fire and sinking another. “You never heard such cheers as went through the air when it went to the bottom,” he declared. Corporal Williams noted that “it was a sight that will never be forgotten by me.”⁴³

The men also witnessed the climactic battle between the Monitor and Merrimac from their vantage point along the beach. “They fought all day,” Pvt. George W. Rabb recalled. “They would shoot and ram each other and shoot and ram. Neither one could gain an advantage.” He continued to watch until late in the evening when both ships finally withdrew. “I have often been asked who won the fight,” Rabb commented. “I say it was draw, a dog fall. It seemed that both ships agreed to stop.” Captain Coleman described this famous encounter in a letter to his wife as “the grandest sight I ever saw.”⁴⁴

By the beginning of May, the men turned their attention to the upcoming elections of their new officers. The discontent ran so high that the outcome of the voting for the three field officers was far from certain. Colonel Williams remained popular enough that he retained his position in the balloting by the company officers. The results that day proved less positive for Lt. Col. Edward P. Cantwell and Maj. Augustus W. Burton, who were both defeated for reelection. They were succeeded by Captains Wade and Jones, who assumed the ranks of lieutenant colonel and major, respectively.⁴⁵

Less than a week later, the regiment finally withdrew from Norfolk. While temporarily attached to Branch’s Brigade, the soldiers experienced their first combat at Hanover Court House on May 27, where they lost seven men killed and about 20 wounded. Within days of that battle, the regiment was sent to the Richmond area, where it was immediately assigned to Garland’s Brigade. “We have been marching and on picket duty every day for the last month,” Pvt. Seaton Gayles Durham remarked in a letter to his brother soon after their arrival outside the capital. “We have learned Something more of what it takes to make a Soldier than we knew at Norfolk.”⁴⁶

Just prior to the beginning of the Seven Days’ Battles, Williams accepted a commission as colonel of the 2nd North Carolina Cavalry and transferred from the regiment along with Adjt. John C. Pegram. The vacant position was filled by the promotion of Lieutenant Colonel Wade, the remaining senior field officer in the 12th North Carolina. After serving in the Tar Heel state for several months, Williams’ new regiment was finally dispatched to the Virginia theater, where it joined Brig. Gen. W. H. F. “Rooney” Lee’s Brigade in Gen. Jeb Stuart’s Cavalry.⁴⁷

Throughout his career, Colonel Williams had not hesitated to use the considerable political influence of his uncle, Confederate Congressman Archibald Hunter Arrington, to gain further advancement. In almost every case, the congressman proved more than willing to assist his relative. As early as the spring of 1862, Arrington wrote to Secretary of War Judah Benjamin asking that Williams’ appointment be changed to the regular Confederate army from the volunteers. The Congressman emphasized that he would “esteem it as a great personal favor” if his request were granted.⁴⁸

Despite those political connections, the Adjutant Generals Office revoked Williams’ transfer to the cavalry on January 17, 1863, and ordered him to return to the 12th regiment. This action drew an immediate protest from Stuart. “Unless it is the intention of this order to prepare the way for Col William’s promotion, I hope it will be revoked,” he wrote in his endorsement. “He is now Col of a fine cav regt to which he is very much attached, and there is no field officer competent to take his place.” Stuart noted that he “would be glad to have him promoted but if he is to remain Col let him remain where he is.”

Although the order was effectively dead once General Lee recommended that Williams “be retained in the command” of his cavalry regiment, the transfer was not officially revoked until March 21. During that time, Williams once again turned to Congressman Arrington for help. At his uncle’s urging, the entire North Carolina congressional delegation requested in mid-February that President Davis consider Williams for promotion to brigadier general. “He is the senior Colonel of the state & is a man of good habits and good abilities,” they wrote in the letter of recommendation.⁴⁹

After hearing nothing further about Williams’ transfer, Iverson reluctantly agreed to support Lieutenant Colonel Ruffin for promotion to colonel. He expressed his growing frustrations in a letter to Cooper at the end of January. “Col Williams has not reported here and I respectfully request information in regard to him,” Iverson declared. If the order for his return would not be enforced, he called for the appointment of Ruffin to head the 12th North Carolina. Iverson pointed out that all the other ranking officers in the regiment had already declined “promotion in his favor.”⁵⁰

Even that concession failed to resolve the problems. The arrangement that would have brought Ruffin into the regiment began to unravel almost immediately. Because of his slow recovery from the hip wound that he suffered while standing next to Gen. Samuel Garland at South Mountain, Ruffin decided against remaining on field duty. Instead, he accepted an appointment as judge of the military court in the Trans-Mississippi Department and took himself out of consideration for promotion to colonel of the 12th North Carolina.⁵¹

Despite the opposition he faced, Iverson refused to give up on obtaining a promotion for Coleman. When D. H. Hill transferred from the division in late January, Iverson surprised everyone by moving ahead with the earlier nomination of his friend for lieutenant colonel. The move drew an angry response from Captain Alston, who wrote a letter of protest directly to Cooper. While conceding that the commission could not be issued until confirmed by the Senate, one of Cooper’s assistants reported to Iverson soon afterward that “it is now too late for the company officers to reconsider their actions in this matter.”⁵²

At the same time, formal approval of the promotion ran into a major delay when the paperwork for Coleman’s appointment was misplaced in the Adjutant General’s Office at Richmond. In mid-April, Iverson informed Robert Rodes, who had temporarily replaced D. H. Hill as division commander, that Coleman had been nominated as lieutenant colonel and would rise by seniority to colonel and that the board of examination would determine the other field officers. He noted that Captain Davis “will I think be able to pass a board for Lt. Col. but I do not know any officer in the regt whom I can recommend for major and will leave it to the test of a board of examiners.”

Rodes quickly made it clear that he was dissatisfied with the arrangement to bring Coleman back into the regiment. “Attention called to Lt. Col. Coleman’s failure to come through the reorganization of these regiments,” the division commander stated in an endorsement before passing Iverson’s letter up the chain of command. At the same time, he remained anxious to deal with the major vacancies at the top of the regiment. “As other field officers have been strangely delayed somehow, most strenuous efforts have been made to promote field officers,” Rodes remarked.

Lieutenant Colonel Walter H. Taylor, Lee’s adjutant, noted in a final endorsement that “the recommended promotion within the 12th reg. must necessarily be delayed until some official notice is received of the appointment of Lt. Col. Coleman.” He also wrote that senior regimental captains should be “ordered before a Board of Exam with a view of determining their qualifications for the several vacancies.” By the time the board convened, another opening had been created by the death of Maj. Rowe in the fighting at Chancellorsville.⁵³

On the board’s recommendation, Captain Davis was approved for promotion to colonel on May 22 and Captain Alston for lieutenant colonel two days later. Despite losing at every turn, Iverson found that decision impossible to endorse. “Genl Iverson however refused to assign me to duty as Colonel stating that he must hear from the war-department first,” recalled Davis. “I looked upon Col Coleman at this time as sustaining the relation of a citizen to the regiment and could not see how he could interpose with promotions in the regiment.… [In] a few days I was ordered on duty as Lt Col and Capt Alston as Major.”⁵⁴

Because Coleman was still absent and had not received a formal commission, Davis immediately assumed command of the regiment as the senior officer. Although he was only 23 years old at the time of his appointment, Davis had earned a reputation as one of the finest officers in the brigade. He attended Randolph-Macon College and the University of Virginia prior to the war and had already built an exceptional record as a company commander through several major battles. Coleman’s paperwork, meanwhile, remained lost in the Richmond bureaucracy. “Nothing was further heard of this matter in camp, and everyone thought it was dropped,” one veteran of the regiment remembered.⁵⁵