Carrington Williams

Richmond attorney Carrington Williams (1919-2002) played a pivotal role in uniting the modern battlefield preservation movement. In the late 1990s, as the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites (APCWS) and the original Civil War Trust struggled to coexist in their shared mission of preservation, Williams was a respected and well-liked voice of reason who helped facilitate their merger in 1999.

Williams, who served as APCWS chairman, was elected chairman of the newly formed Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT), now the American Battlefield Trust. During the CWPT's difficult first year, Williams worked closely with President Jim Lighthizer to purchase the core of the Shenandoah Valley's threatened Cross Keys Battlefield, where a Trust-installed interpretive site is dedicated in his memory.

A World War II veteran, Williams was also the founding chairman of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, a board member of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, and a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1966 to 1970 and again from 1972 to 1978.

Williams passed away in 2002, leaving a lasting legacy of leadership and cooperation that helped shape the modern battlefield preservation movement and advance the protection of America's hallowed ground.