Martin Luther Williams

A 22 year old farmer, he enlisted as a Private in Company E (later B), 31st Virginia Infantry on 11 May 1861 at Monterey. He was promoted to Corporal by September 1862.

He was listed as missing and supposed killed at Martinsburg, VA on 12 September 1862 but had been captured by members of the 54th Pennsylvania Infantry at North Mountain, VA on the 13th.

He was in the Federal Athenaeum Prison at Wheeling, VA on 16 September and sent on to Camp Chase, OH on the 17th. He was paroled for exchange and sent to Cairo, IL on 29 September and exchanged aboard the steamer Emerald near Vicksburg, MS on 1 November 1862.

He returned to duty and was wounded in action at Spotsylvania Court House, VA on 12 May 1864. He was received as a "deserter from the rebel army" at Beverly, WV on 12 January 1865, took an oath of allegiance, and was released on 16 January.

In 1880 he was a farm worker in Waverly, Lafayette County, MO. By 1900 and to his death in 1910 he was a policeman or watchman in Kansas City.

His service from Ashcraft1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 via fold3. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1880-1910. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Susan B (?, 1848-) and they had 6 children between 1877 and 1893.

06/07/1839; Bath County, VA

09/09/1910; Kansas City, MO; burial in Elmwood Cemetery, Kansas City, MO