William Benjamin Dunlap

He was a student for a year at Princeton before the war and he enlisted as Private in the Lancaster Grays, later Company A, 9th South Carolina Infantry, on 8 April 1861. He was promoted to Corporal by November 1861 and transferred to Company A, 5th South Carolina Infantry at the reorganization of early 1862. He was wounded at Glendale, VA on 30 July 1862 and commissioned 2nd Lieutenant on 22 August 1862.

He was with his Company in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.

He was promoted to First Lieutenant by July 1863 and commanded his Company as senior officer from the battle of the Wilderness, VA in May 1864 to February 1865. He then resigned his commission - because none of his "associates" were still in his Company, and that they were down to 3 officers and 21 soldiers. He then served as a Private in the Palmetto Light Artillery. He was surrendered with that battery at Appomattox Court House on 9 April 1865.

He returned home and was a farmer in Lancaster County. He was County Treasurer there (1876-1890), then moved to Rock Hill, where he was a trustee of Winthrop College (now University, founded 1886) and a wholesale grocer.

Thanks to Barry Truluck for details above from his research in the US Census (1850-1900), his obituary in the Lancaster News of 26 April 1918 (online from South Carolina Historical Newspapers), and his Compiled Service Records (via Fold3). The Appomattox detail from the parole list published by the National Park Service. His gravesite is on Findagrave, as "Colonel", which seems to have been an honorary title.

He married Elizabeth "Bettie" Wells Baskin (1841-1906) in 1865 and they had at least 4 children.

06/06/1840; Lancaster County, SC

04/19/1918; Rock Hill, SC; burial in Laurelwood Cemetery, Rock Hill, SC