William Dick Witherspoon

In 1860 he was a 28 year old planter on his father's place at Linden in Marengo County, AL. He enlisted as a Private, Company H (later I, renamed D), 5th Alabama Infantry on 30 May 1861 in Pensacola, FL and was promoted to 4th Sergeant, date not given.

He was wounded in the knee and captured in action near Turner's Gap on South Mountain on 14 September 1862.

He was held at Fort Delaware until paroled on 2 October, then sent to Aiken's Landing, VA for exchange. He was admitted to a Richmond, VA hospital on 10 October, furloughed home for 60 days, and was declared exchanged and eligible to return to duty on 10 November 1862. He was recommended for a commission as Lieutenant in December 1862, but not appointed for lack of a vacancy (as late as December 1863). He was wounded again, by a gunshot to his right shoulder at Chancellorsville, VA on 3 May 1863, but was back with his Company about 9 June. He served to at least March 1864, the latest record in his military file.

He went to Merced County, CA about 1873 and practiced medicine. He moved to Mariposa County in 1890 and to Mountain View in Santa Clara County about 1902.

His service from the State of Alabama1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 online from fold3. He's listed as missing on South Mountain in a casualty list for Rodes' Brigade in the Montgomery Weekly Advertiser of 8 October 1862. Personal details from family genealogists, his obituary in the Mariposa Gazette of 25 April 1903, and the US Census of 1860. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

05/22/1832; Tuscaloosa, AL

04/02/1903; Mountain View, CA