52 Ancestors 2025: The Reunion of Ben McWIlliams

 

We’ve met my 2nd-great-grandfather Benjamin Cruiser McWilliams before and learned about his harrowing experiences in various Confederate prison camps. He was paroled from a Savannah prison after 13 months of captivity. That winter, Ben was granted a furlough to return home to his family in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. In his later writings about the war and his return to civilian life, he reflected on that homecoming.

He first visited Trevorton to see his grandfather, Benjamin Knauss, at his inn. At first, his cousins didn’t recognize him, but one finally did, exclaiming, “My God, there’s Ben McWilliams!” Grandpa Knauss greeted him with a hearty, “I thought them damned buggers had killed you.” Ben described his capture and explained that he had no choice in surrendering (apparently, Grandpa Knauss believed a soldier should fight to the death) which seemed to satisfy the old man. The next day, Ben helped with the hog butchering before heading to Shamokin to see his parents. “I got there after dark, knocked at their door, and when they opened it, they thought the dead had come to life.”

At a barn raising the following day, he saw more neighbors and relatives. His uncle Will Follmer, who had opposed the war, told him the rebels were nearly finished. When asked why Grant hadn’t yet taken Richmond, Ben replied, “We didn’t want it, that we were holding old Bob Lee up there in that corner of the Confederacy, while Grant was surrounding him on all sides and cutting off his rations.” He added, “Whenever Grant moves in the Spring, mind what I tell you, the thing is ended.”

Ben McWilliams endured an ordeal far beyond what he imagined when he enlisted in a burst of patriotism. He suffered greatly, which made his homecoming all the more meaningful, and it is interesting that, after all he had gone through, Ben was expected to help in the community projects: hog butchering and barn raising. 

Ben rejoined his regiment, the 16th Pennsylvania Cavalry, and participated in the final Appomattox Campaign. As he had predicted, when Grant moved, the war ended. Afterward, Ben headed west to Iowa and later settled in Missouri.