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W.H. Relyea
(1833 - 1918)
Home State: Connecticut
Branch of Service: Infantry
Before Antietam
A 29 year old cigar maker in West Suffield, CT, he enlisted as a Private in Company D, 16th Connecticut Infantry on 29 July 1862.
On the Campaign
He was with his Company at Antietam on 17 September 1862.
The rest of the War
He was promoted to Sergeant on Christmas Day 1862 and mustered out with his Company on 24 June 1865.
After the War
By 1870 he had a tobacco and cigar store in New Britain, CT, and he was a florist in Hartford by 1900. He began receiving a veteran's pension as an invalid in June 1907.
References & notes
His service from the Record.1. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860, 1870, and 1900. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a photograph in the Connecticut State Library, thanks to John Banks.
He married Celia Ann Sikes (1840-1906) in March 1860 and they had 6 children, 5 boys and a girl.
More on the Web
John Michael Priest and his students edited and published his history of the regiment in 16th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry: Sergeant William H. Relyea (2002), source also of his presence at Antietam. Relyea's original manuscript is with his papers at the Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford.
Birth
05/08/1833; Newburg, NY
Death
10/05/1918; burial in Fairview Cemetery, New Britain, CT
1 State of Connecticut, Adjutant General's Office, and AGs Smith, Camp, and Barbour, and AAG White, Record of Service of Connecticut Men in the Army and Navy of the United States during the War of the Rebellion, Hartford: Press of the Case, Lockwood, and Brainard Company, 1889, pg. 626 [AotW citation 27055]