Alexander Hamilton Willard

Photo:  California State Library

This photograph was taken of Alexander Hamilton Willard and his wife Eleanor in the mid-1860s, just prior to his death near Sacramento, California. It’s believed that Willard and Patrick Gass were the only two Expedition members to live long enough to be photographed.

Willard was from New Hampshire, born in either 1777 or 1778. He joined the U.S. Army in 1800 as an “artificer” or craftsman – he was likely a blacksmith. Willard is probably best known as being court-martialed for “Lying down and Sleeping on his post whilst a Sentinal, on the night of the 11th,” which took place in July 1804 in the area of today’s Nebraska/Kansas state line.