William Emil Doster (1837-1919) - Find a Grave Memorial

Civil War Union Brevet Brigadier General. A law student who had attended both Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the beginning of the Civil War he enlisted in the Union Army and was commissioned as Major of the 4th Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry on October 18, 1861. In February 1862 he was assigned as Provost Marshal of Washington, DC, a post he held for a year. Promoted Lieutenant Colonel on October 30, 1862, in the spring of 1863 he requested a return to field duty, which was granted. His return to the 4th Pennsylvania Cavalry found him the senior most officer, which placed him in command of the regiment. He led his men through the May 1863 Chancellorsville Campaign and the June-July 1863 Gettysburg Campaign. He was briefly captured by the Confederates at the June 21, 1863 Battle of Upperville, escaping after knocking down his guards. During the Battle of Gettysburg his men held the left flank of the army, and after the end of the engagement he led his troops in the pursuit of the retreating Confederate Army. Sickness prevented him from continuing his field service, and he resigned due to disability on October 18, 1863. He practiced law in Washington, DC, and on March 13, 1865 received a brevet of Brigadier General, US Volunteers for “gallant and meritorious services during the war”. In May 1865 he was assigned the unenviable position of legal defense counsel for President Abraham Lincoln Assassination conspirators George Azterodt and Lewis Payne, who were subsequently found guilty with the rest of the accused conspirators and hanged. After the war he resided first in Easton, Pennsylvania before settling back in his native Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he practiced law and served as a bank president.