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(1843 - 1921)
Home State: Texas
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 4th Texas Infantry
Before Sharpsburg
A 19 year old farmer from Travis County, he enlisted in Austin as a Private in Company B, 4th Texas Infantry on 17 March 1862.
On the Campaign
He was listed as a deserter "from the field" at Sharpsburg on 17 September.
The rest of the War
He was back with his Company soon after the battle.
During the Battle of Gettysburg [2 July 1863], I was captured and placed in prison at Fort Delaware and was released at the break up of war - was in prison about 23 months.He was briefly held at Ft. McHenry in Baltimore and sent to the Federal prison at Fort Delaware on 6 July.
After the War
The 1870 census record of Hayes County, Texas has William Puryear, 25, wife Fanny, 18 and son James M. 3. He was a "gambler" in San Antonio in 1900 and ran a rooming house there by 1910.
References & notes
Service information from Davis1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 via fold3. The quote about Gettysburg above from his pension application. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census for 1860, 1870, 1900, and 1910. His name also seen as Priar and Prior.
He married Fannie M Ford (1853-1910) in November 1866 in Travis County, and they had at least 2 children.
Birth
04/24/1843 in TN
Death
02/27/1921; in TX
1 Davis, Rev. Nicholas A., The Campaign from Texas to Maryland, Houston: Telegraph Book and Job Establishment, 1863, pp. 150 - 152 [AotW citation 1690]
2 US War Department, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, Record Group No. 109 (War Department Collection of Confederate Records), Washington DC: US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), 1903-1927 [AotW citation 26622]