William Morrill Wadley

William Morrill Wadley (November 12, 1813 – August 10, 1882) was a railroad engineer, and the superintendent of several railroad projects in the Southern United States in the mid-19th century.

Life and career

Wadley was born in 1813, in Brentwood, New Hampshire, to Dole and Sarah Colcord Wadley. His father had changed the spelling of the family name from Wadleigh to Wadley, hence his branch of the family is the only one with the spelling as such.

In 1840, he married Rebecca Barnard Everingham, daughter of John Everingham and Sarah Weber Barnard, with whom he had nine children: William Oconius (born 1841), Sarah Lois (1844), John Dole (1846), Mary Millen (1848), Rebecca Everingham (1850), an unnamed daughter (1852), Loring Reynolds (1853), George Dole (1857) and John Everingham (1860). John Dole and the unnamed daughter died in infancy.

In 1852, he was installed as superintendent of the Western and Atlantic Railroad, but returned to the Central of Georgia Railway in that role the following year.

Wadley was appointed as colonel in the Adjutant General's department of the Confederate Army between November 1862 and May 1863. His duties were to supervise and direct the transportation of the Confederacy on all of its railroads. The Confederate States Congress did not officially recognize his appointment and his commission was terminated. He occupied the role from 1866 until his death. A marble bust of Wadley, made the year following his death, is within W. B. Hodgson Hall in Savannah.