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W.W. Sanders
(1839 - 1883)
Home State: Pennsylvania
Command Billet: Commanding Company
Branch of Service: Infantry
Before Antietam
Son of Captain John Sanders (USMA '34, 1810-58), he was appointed 2nd Lieutenant, 6th United States Infantry on 23 June 1860 and promoted to First Lieutenant on 9 May 1861. He was regimental Adjutant from 1 December to 27 June 1862, then promoted to Captain.
On the Campaign
He commanded Company I of the 6th US Infantry on the Maryland Campaign.
The rest of the War
He was wounded at Chancellorsville, VA on 3 May 1863. He was honored by brevets to Major, on 2 December 1864 for war service, Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel in 1865, for his actions at Petersburg and on the Appomattox Campaign. He was Colonel of the First Provisional Pennsylvania Cavalry from March to August 1865, then Lieutenant Colonel of the First US Veteran Volunteers, to March 1866.
After the War
He continued in the Regular Army, serving as acting Judge Advocate in Philadelphia and the South to about 1870. He was promoted to Major of the 8th US Infantry on 15 December 1880.
References & notes
His service from Heitman1 and Henry.2 Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1850. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a photograph in the Meade Album, Civil War Library & Museum, Philadelphia; as found in Hunt.3
He married Helen Livingston (1840-1883) in September 1874 in New York City, and they had 2 children.
Birth
10/08/1839; Pittsburgh, PA
Death
01/26/1883; Fort Snelling, MN; burial in Woodlands Cemetery, Philadelphia, PA
1 Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Vol. 1, pg. 858 [AotW citation 29132]
2 Henry, Guy Vernor, Military Record of Civilian Appointments in the United States Army, 2 Volumes, New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1873, Vol. 1, pg. 440 [AotW citation 29133]
3 Hunt, Roger D., Colonels in Blue: Union Army Colonels of the Civil War - Mid Atlantic States, Mechanicsburg (PA): Stackpole Books, 2007, pg. 144 [AotW citation 29134]