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Federal (USA)

Lieutenant

William Snethen Collier

(1839 - 1889)

Home State: Pennsylvania

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 4th United States Infantry

Before Antietam

He enrolled at Pittsburgh in the 12th Pennsylvania Infantry on 25 April 1861 as 2nd Lieutenant, and mustered out of that 3 month unit on 5 August 1861. He was commissioned 2nd then First Lieutenant, 4th US Infantry in August 1861. He served as acting Regimental QM during 1862, and was present at Yorktown, Gaines Mill, Malvern Hill, Manassas, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville.

The rest of the War

Detailed as Aide-de-camp to the First Brigade of Regular Infantry in 1863 and was engaged at Gettysburg. On mustering and recruiting duty at Detroit 1863-64. Brevetted Captain for Chancellorsville. Promoted Captain in June 1864. Brevet Major in April 1865 for War service.

After the War

He continued in Regular Army service with the Fourth Infantry. He was at Fort Laramie, WY at the 1870 US Census, and retired on 27 April 1880.

References & notes

Basic information from Powell1, with details from Heitman2. His birthdate from his gravesite on Findagrave. His death place from a notice in the Pittston (PA) Evening Gazette of 17 June 1889, page 1.

More on the Web

There are references to a problem with alcohol while he was commanding Company K, 4th Infantry in South Dakota and Wyoming. See Paul L. Hedren's Drunk on the Black Hills Road in 1876: Army Reprisals against Doctor Reynolds, Lieutenant Taylor, and Captain Collier in South Dakota History, Vol. 41, Issue 4 (Dec 2011).

Birth

07/15/1839 in MD

Death

06/15/1889; Washington, DC; burial in Allegheny Cemetery, Pittsburg, PA

Notes

1   Powell, William Henry, A History of the Organization and Movements of the Fourth Regiment of Infantry, United States Army, Washington, DC: McGill and Witherow, Printers and Stereotypers, 1871, pp. 88 - 202  [AotW citation 13658]

2   Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Vol. 1, pg. 317  [AotW citation 13667]