Fort Williams was ordered constructed in Glasgow in the spring of 1863 as part of the Union army’s spring and summer effort to build defensive works at strategic points in Kentucky to protect transportation networks and supply depots in the Commonwealth from Confederate raids. Built under the supervision of Lieut. Miles D. McAlister, Chief Engineer for the Department of the Ohio, it was a figure 8 shaped redoubt, an enclosed fort designed to withstand attacks from all sides, with gun platforms on its east and west faces and a detached infantry trench placed down the hill east of the fort to strengthen its defenses. The fort was armed with 24-pounder and 6-pounder cannons, had several names, and was officially named Fort Williams in November 1863 in honor of Gen. Thomas Williams, who was killed in battle. Glasgow was garrisoned by Union troops throughout the war, and its strategic importance came from its position at the crossroads of several north-south and east-west roads and, by June 1863, a branch of the L&N Railroad. Thomas Williams, born in Albany, New York, on January 10, 1815, began military service as a private in the Black Hawk War in 1832, received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1833, and graduated in 1837. A brave and competent but strict disciplinarian who often conflicted with his subordinates, he was serving in 1861 as an instructor at the Artillery School at Fort Monroe in Virginia when the Civil War began. He was then assigned to Gen. Benjamin Butler’s command in the land operations against New Orleans, and from there he and his brigade were given the task of occupying Baton Rouge. In August 1862, Confederate forces under Gen. John C. Breckinridge attacked the city, and Williams was killed while leading its successful defense before being buried in the family plot in Detroit, Michigan.