His ship finally came in; however, it was twenty-two miles short of his destination.

Clifford Williams was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, about 1843. It is believed that members of his family migrated to California prior to, or during the Civil War.

Williams joined the US Navy at an unspecified date and location and in early 1865, was serving as a "coal passer" aboard the USS Suwanee in Pennsylvania.

In 1865 the Confederate privateer, Shenandoah, was plying Pacific waters in the hope of drawing Union vessels off its blockade of the south. On February 17, 1865, the Suwanee received orders to proceed to the Pacific Ocean to search for the Shenandoah. After rounding Cape Horn, the Suwanee steamed up the Pacific coast to San Francisco where it remained until April 1865 when it departed for Puget Sound. The Suwanee continued searching up and down the coast for the Confederate raider, not knowing that it had left Pacific waters for England in the fall of 1865.

During one of the ship's visits to Peru or Mexico during the summer of 1866, Clifford Williams contracted "brain fever" (meningitis). His condition continued to deteriorate as the Suwanee returned to Northern California. When they arrived at Monterey on July 30, 1866, Williams had died on board the ship. Since the ship was departing for Santa Cruz its Captain allowed Williams to remain on board to finish his voyage home to Santa Cruz.

In Santa Cruz Clifford Williams received a funeral he could never have expected. During the week of the Suwanee's arrival the city had been conducting a conference of dignitaries, including Governor Low. The crew planned an elaborate funeral and the ship's captain extended invitations to the officials to join them. The Santa Cruz Sentinel reported that a procession including fife and drummers, a hearse, pallbearers, officials, forty members of the ship's crew and presumably, family members made its way to Ever green Cemetery. A local Episcopal priest conducted the graveside service and marines fired a volley over the grave. The procession reassembled and returned to the ship where officials were entertained. Later Williams received a fitting headstone purchased with the $250 that his crewmates had raised. That headstone still remains in Evergreen Cemetery.

(DANFS, Suwanee; The Illustrated History of the Civil War by Henry Steele Commager-, page 260; SCSn November 12, 1972; SCSn August 4, 1866; Pajaro Times August 6, 1866; Evergreen Cemetery SCCMAH archives)