Born in Springfield, Ohio to Orson Williams and Pamela Floyd, he graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1884 and was ordered to the sloop USS Hartford, flagship of the Pacific Squadron.

[1] During the Spanish–American War, he commanded the newly commissioned gunboat USS Gwin, which participated in the blockade of Cuba as a dispatch vessel.

[1] He participated in a preliminary hydrographic survey of Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands for a cable station in 1901.

He served briefly as chief of staff of the Naval War College early in 1919, but was transferred in June 1919 to command Battleship Squadron 4, U.S. Pacific Fleet.

In 1926, the Kuomintang allied with the Chinese Communist Party to launch the Northern Expedition with the objective of unifying the country by suppressing local warlords and abrogating the unequal treaties imposed on China by the Western powers.

As Kuomintang forces approached Shanghai, home to a large international settlement, the American minister to China, John Van Antwerpt MacMurray, requested military intervention to protect their lives and interests.

The American force included four cruisers, four destroyers, an oiler, a transport, a minesweeper, and the 3rd Marine Brigade, commanded by Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler.