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W. Crosby
"Willie"
(1843 - 1917)
Home State: Maine
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 7th Maine Infantry
Before Antietam
Son of successful lawyer William Chase Crosby (1806-1880), he was an 18 year old student in Bangor when he enlisted as Sergeant of Company H, 7th Maine Infantry on 7 August 1861.
On the Campaign
He was with his Company in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862.
The rest of the War
He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant on 18 September and sent home on recruiting duty from November to March 1863, then in garrison to November 1863. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on in MArch 1864 and wounded in the Wilderness, VA in May. He was promoted to Captain in December 1864, and wounded again, at Hare's Hill, VA. He was appointed Captain, 2nd United States Veteran Volunteers on 5 October 1865 and mustered out of the Volunteers on 20 March 1866.
After the War
He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant and First Lieutenant, 12th United States Infantry to date from 23 February 1866 and transferred (re-organized) to the 21st US Infantry on 21 September 1866. He was unassigned on 8 April 1869 and was honorably mustered out on 1 January 1871.
He then went to San Francisco and was a patent attorney there. In 1887, as a veteran's benefit 10 years after his initial application, he obtained and began working a 160-acre homestead called Mulfontes Ranch in the Livermore Valley.
References & notes
His service from the Card File,1 Heitman,2 and Henry.3 Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860, and Ann Homan's William Crosby: Civil War Vet and Farmer in the Livermore Independent of 16 February 2012 [PDF online]. His picture from a photograph in the Maine State Archives.
He married Maria Elizabeth (Mac)Lachlan (1859-1909) in October 1887 and they had 6 children.
Birth
07/03/1843; Atkinson, ME
Death
12/20/1917; Livermore, CA; burial in Mulfontes Ranch, near Livermore, CA.
1 State of Maine, Maine State Archives, Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Card Index, 1861-1865, Augusta (ME): Department of the Secretary of State, c. 2000 [AotW citation 29200]
2 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. 340 [AotW citation 29201]
3 Henry, Guy Vernor, Military Record of Civilian Appointments in the United States Army, 2 Volumes, New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1873, Vol. 1, pg. 288 [AotW citation 29202]