William A Jenkins

Home State: North Carolina
Command Billet: Regimental Lt Col
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 46th North Carolina Infantry

Before the Antietam Campaign:
He was North Carolina state attorney general, 1857-62. He joined the 46th Regiment as Captain of Company C on 26 March 1862, but was appointed Lieutenant Colonel when the regiment's field officers were selected at initial organization on 4 April near Raleigh.

In the Antietam Campaign:
He succeeded to command of the Regiment when Colonel Hall assumed command of the Brigade from the wounded Colonel Manning on 17 September in the West Woods.

The remainder of the War:
He resigned his commission on 1 January 1863...

After the War:
"... to take control of his father-in-law's estate of considerable value. Colonel Jenkins was for many years, and up to his death, the most successful practitioner of law in the county. He was not a profound lawyer, nor was he of liter?ary taste or culture, but he was the brightest intellect the county produced in his generation. He was of medium statue, with very black curling hair, regular features, and strikingly intelligent and sparkling black eyes. He was quick and energetic in all his movements, mental and physical. In his addresses at the bar, and in his political speeches, he was im?passioned and fiery. He was attending Halifax Court, when he died very suddenly, only forty years of age"1.

References, Sources, and other notes:
Service details from Moore 2 and Clark 3.

College: U of North Carolina Graduating Year: 1848

Notes

1 Montgomery, Lizzie Wilson, Sketches of old Warrenton, North Carolina, Raleigh: Edwards & Broughton Printing Co., 1924, pg. 279 [AotW citation 1049]

2 Moore, John Wheeler (compiler), and State of North Carolina, Roster of North Carolina Troops in the War Between the States, 4 volumes, Raleigh: Ashe & Gatling, State Printers and Publishers, 1882, Vol. 3, pp. 292, 300 [AotW citation 1050]

3 Clark, Walter, editor, Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War, 1861-1865, 5 vols., Raleigh and Goldsboro (NC): E. M. Uzzell, Nash Brothers, printers, 1901, Vol. 3, pp. 64-65 [AotW citation 1051]

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