William Gamble | |
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| Born | (1818-01-01)1 January 1818 |
| Died | 20 December 1866(1866-12-20) (aged 48) Virgin Bay,Nicaragua |
| Buried | Virgin Grove Cemetery, Virgin Bay, Nicaragua |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom United States of America |
| Branch |  British Army United States Army |
| Service years | 1838–1843, 1861–1866 |
| Rank |  Brigadier General |
| Commands | 8th Illinois Cavalry |
| Conflicts | Second Seminole War American Civil War |
| Signature | .png) |
William Gamble (1 January 1818 – 20 December 1866) was a civil engineer and aUnited States Armycavalry officer. He served during theSecond Seminole War, and fought for theUnion during theAmerican Civil War. He commanded one of two brigades in Brigadier GeneralJohn Buford's Division of Cavalry, in which he played an important role in defending Union positions during thefirst day of theBattle of Gettysburg.
Gamble was born in thetownland of Duross,Lisnarick, County Fermanagh,Ireland. He studiedcivil engineering, worked in the Queen's Surveying Office, and participated in theOrdnance Survey Ireland. He emigrated to the United States in 1838. Since he had experience as adragoon in theBritish army, he enlisted as aprivate in the 1st U.S. Dragoons and rose through the ranks to becomesergeant major by 1839. While in the Army he married Sophia Steingrandt, daughter of King's German Legion Feldwebel Georg Steingrandt, on 6 May 1841, and they had 13 (by some accounts 15) children together. After fighting in theSeminole Wars, he was discharged in 1843 and worked as a civil engineer for the Board of Public Works inChicago and lived inEvanston, Illinois. His house is now used by theAnthropology Department ofNorthwestern University.
After the start of the Civil War, Gamble was appointedlieutenant colonel of the8th Illinois Cavalry regiment on 18 September 1861. His nomination was urged by his close friend,U.S. CongressmanJohn F. Farnsworth, who raised and commanded the regiment. Gamble's son George also joined the regiment as afirst lieutenant. (George survived the war, but was killed in a collapsed hotel during the1906 San Francisco earthquake).
Gamble's regiment was attached to the Pennsylvania Reserve Division and fought in thePeninsula Campaign during the spring and summer of 1862. On August 5, 1862 - more than a month after the end of theSeven Days Battles - Gamble was badly wounded when he was shot in the chest while leading a cavalry charge against rebel pickets nearMalvern Hill.
Gamble spent the fall of 1862 recovering from his wound, and when Farnsworth was promoted to brigadier general, Gamble was promoted tocolonel on 5 December 1862, and was given command of the 8th Illinois Cavalry. His regiment saw no action in theBattle of Fredericksburg.
In early 1863, Gamble was promoted to command of the 1st Brigade of Maj. Gen.Alfred Pleasonton's cavalrydivision in theArmy of the Potomac, but suffering fromrheumatism andneuralgia (possibly as a result of his wound the year before or the severity of the winter), he received a medical furlough in March 1863, and was absent for theBattle of Chancellorsville, as well as for the largest cavalry battle of the war in theBattle of Brandy Station. The officer in temporary command of his brigade, ColonelBenjamin Franklin Davis, was killed there, and Gamble returned to the field on 13 June 1863.
During theGettysburg campaign, Gamble's brigade was assigned to Brig. Gen.John Buford's 1st Division. He reachedGettysburg on 30 June and was riding at the head of the column when they spotted the first elements of theConfederateArmy of Northern Virginia and began theBattle of Gettysburg on the morning of 1 July. While his troops were hopelessly outnumbered, they slowed the progress of theMississippi brigades fromLt. Gen.A.P. Hill's corps for about two hours while Union infantry from Maj. Gen.John F. Reynolds'sI Corps (James S. Wadsworth's division) hurried to join the fight. When it came time to retire, Colonel Gamble's troops moved to the infantry's left flank. Gamble, along with the rest of Buford's cavalry, had provided a crucial window of time to get the Union Army into position.
After Gettysburg, the theatre of war shifted back to Virginia. During this time, Gamble briefly joinedGeorge Stoneman's staff at the U.S. Cavalry Bureau in Washington, D.C.. ColonelGeorge Henry Chapman replaced him as commander of the brigade, which remained with the main army and fought in the ensuingBristoe Campaign andMine Run Campaign.
From December 21, 1863, until the end of the war, Gamble commanded a cavalry division in theXXII Corps of the Department of Washington, where was involved in the defense of the city, particularly at theBattle of Fort Stevens, and thereafter his troopers continuously tangled with the Confederatepartisan ranger,John S. Mosby. He commanded the remount station at Camp Stoneman, but the lingering effects of his wounds prevented any further field service. Gamble received abrevet promotion tobrigadier general on 12 December 1864, and a full promotion tobrigadier general on 25 September 1865. He was mustered out of the volunteer service on 13 March 1866, and reentered the service with the rank ofmajor in the 8th U.S. Cavalry.
Gamble died ofcholera in Virgin Bay,Nicaragua, while en route to command of thePresidio of San Francisco, and is buried in Virgin Bay in the Virgin Grove Cemetery, a burial ground which has been flooded and obliterated by the waters of the Bay.
Gamble was portrayed byBuck Taylor in the 1993 filmGettysburg, based on Michael Shaara's novel,The Killer Angels. He appears in the alternate history novelGettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War, in which he is taken as a prisoner of war.
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