Open main menu
Open main menu
![[no picture yet]](images/none.gif)
[no picture yet]
(1825 - 1904)
Home State: Texas
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 4th Texas Infantry
Before Sharpsburg
From ages 7 to 13 (1833-1839) he was apprenticed to Amzi and Amy Black, farmers in Adams County, IL, then returned home to Tennessee.
At age 20 he enlisted with his older brother Franklin in Cornersville, Giles County, TN as a Private in Company E, (First) Regiment of Tennessee Mounted Infantry (Volunteers) on 23 May 1846 for Mexican War service and they both mustered out in New Orleans on 31 May 1847.
On 15 July 1861, by then a 35 year old farmer, he enlisted in Robertson County as a Private in Company C, 4th Texas Infantry. He was appointed 3rd Sergeant by August 1862.
On the Campaign
He was in action with his Company at Fox's Gap on South Mountain on 14 September and at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.
The rest of the War
He was wounded in his left leg at Chickamauga, GA on 20 September 1863 and his leg was amputated.
After the War
In 1880 he lived in Courtney and was the Grimes County tax assessor from 1878 to 1888. By 1900 he was farming there.
References & notes
Service information from Davis,1 his (Civil War) Compiled Service Records,2 via fold3 (also as W.C. Steel), and his (Mexican War) Compiled Service Records.3 Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census for 1880 and 1900, his Pension Payment Card, and his obituary in the Confederate Veteran.4 His gravesite is on Findagrave.
He married Sarah E. "Sallie" Wood (1847-1911) in March 1868 in Grimes County, and they had 2 children. Sallie received a US veteran's pension for his Mexican War service from 1908 to her death in 1911.
Birth
11/12/1825; Maury County, TN
Death
11/18/1904; Courtney, TX; burial in Courtney Cemetery, Courtney, TX
1 Davis, Rev. Nicholas A., The Campaign from Texas to Maryland, Houston: Telegraph Book and Job Establishment, 1863, pp. 152-153 [AotW citation 1720]
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 26816]
3 US War Department, Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Soldiers Who Served During the Mexican War for the states of Arkansas, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and in Mormon Battalion, Record Group No. 94, Washington DC: US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), 1780-1917 [AotW citation 26818]
4 United Confederate Veterans, and United Daughters of the Confederacy and Sons of Confederate Veterans, Confederate Veteran Magazine (1893-1932), 1893-01-00, Vol. 13, No. 7 (July 1905), pg. 321 [AotW citation 26817]