William Thomas Marsh

(1830 - 1862)
Home State: North Carolina
Command Billet: Company Officer
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 4th North Carolina Infantry

Before the Antietam Campaign:
A lawyer and farmer, he was a Whig representative of Beaufort County in the North Carolina General Assembly in 1861. He was commissioned Captain of the "Pamlico Rifles", Company I of the Fourth Regiment on 10 May 1861 as the regiment was first organized. He was reelected to the legislature shortly before Sharpsburg, but decided to remain with his men.

In the Antietam Campaign:
He was in command of the regiment in the Sunken Road on the morning of 17 September. He was mortally wounded in action there.

The remainder of the War:
He was followed in command of the Company by his brother Edward, who was later Major of the regiment and retired on disability due to wounds.

References, Sources, and other notes:
Information about his pre-War life from a bio sketch from the Palmer-Marsh House site and his Yale obituary 1. Service date from Moore's Roster2 with further information from Clark 3.

More on the Web:
His Yale law diploma [image] was offered for sale online by Continental Auctions.

Birth Date: 07/21/1830    Place of Birth: near Indian Island, NC
College: Yale Law    Graduating Year: 1852
Death Date: 09/25/1862    Death Place: Shepherdstown, VA    Burial Place: Palmer-Marsh House yard, Bath, NC

Notes

1 Yale University, Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University, 1900-1910, New Haven: The Tuttle, Morehouse and Taylor Co., 1910, pg. 1369 [AotW citation 1044]

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. 1, pg. 150 [AotW citation 1045]

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. 1, pp. 231, 233, 246, 247, 267, 270 [AotW citation 1046]

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