Dudley, William W. (William Wade), 1842-1909

William Wade Dudley was born in Weathersfield Bow, Vermont, the son of Reverend John Dudley, a well-known Congregational minister whose sermons were widely reprinted. Reverend Wade was a graduate of Yale Seminary, a sometime missionary to the Choctaw Indians, and a descendant of William Dudley, one of the earliest settlers of Guilford, Connecticut, in 1639. Dudley's mother was Abigail Wade, a granddaughter of Col. Nathaniel Wade, a staff officer to General George Washington during the Revolutionary War.

He married his first wife, Theresa Fiske, in 1864, and they had four children together. After his wife's death in 1897, he married Nannie A. Robinson. Dudley died in Washington, D.C., in 1909.

After studying at Phillips Academy, Danville, in Vermont, and at Russell Military Academy in New Haven, Connecticut, he joined the Union Army as captain of the Richmond City Greys—volunteers for service in the American Civil War. Dudley's company was incorporated into the 19th Indiana Volunteer Regiment of the famed Iron Brigade of the Army of the Potomac. At age 19, at the Battle of Antietam, he took command of the regiment after the death of Lieutenant Colonel Alois O. Bachman. Following the battle, Dudley was quickly promoted to Major (September 18, 1862), and then Lieutenant Colonel (October 6, 1862).

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