John Shoebridge Williams dating history

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John Shoebridge Williams (1790 – 27 April 1878), also known as J. S. Williams, was an American civil engineer, surveyor-cartographer, militia staff officer, and later Spiritualist author. As brigade major and inspector of the District of Columbia militia’s First (Columbian) Brigade during the War of 1812, he took part in the Battle of Bladensburg and witnessed the burning of Washington. His memoir, "History of the Invasion and Capture of Washington" (1857), remains the earliest extended firsthand account of those events. After the war he joined the U.S. Board of Engineers for Internal Improvement (1824–25) and helped compile the profile sheets for the western-summit survey of the proposed Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. Williams later published regional maps, historical studies, and Spiritualist pamphlets that continue to serve scholars of early American infrastructure, religion, and coastal North Carolina communities.