William Hill Andrews

His father died when William was about 8, and in 1860 he was a 22 year old overseer living with his widowed mother Jane and 6 siblings at Cuthbert in Randolph County, GA. He was a "temporary resident" of Fort Gaines in Clay county by January 1861, where he'd gone to join the local militia company, the Fort Gaines Guards (later Company D, 9th Georgia Infantry). But on 20 February 1861 he left them, enlisted for regular state service, and mustered as a Private in Company D (later K, and finally, in May, M), First Georgia Infantry at Fort Gaines.

He was slightly wounded above his left knee by a piece of shell at Yorktown, VA on 28 April 1862 and again, sightly, by a spent bullet to his left arm at Peach Orchard near Savage Station, VA on 29 June. He was acting First Sergeant of his company by 28 August, and was later promoted to date from June.

He was with his company in the battle at Crampton's Gap on South Mountain on 14 September 1862 and was one of only 5 remaining members of Company M at Sharpsburg on 17 September, where they fought in the West Woods. He later recalled

It was one of the prettiest fights I have ever been in. How brave a soldier can be when the enemy is on the run. Besides, I fought tree to tree. Being in front of the line I could select my own position, and as our boys crowded up, would make for another tree in advance. It was some 400 yards through the woods with scarcely any undergrowth, but enough large trees to shade the ground.

He was at Fredericksburg, VA in December but on commissary detail and not engaged, and returned to Georgia with the regiment in January 1863. He was with them in Florida for most of 1863 and into 1864. He reenlisted and got a 30-day furlough on 19 February, missing the battle at Olustee, FL the next day. By May he was back in Georgia with them, and in July to Charleston, SC, where they were engaged on Johns Island.

He was on garrison service there and at Savannah, GA into January 1865, then in action at Pocotaligo, Salkahatchee, and Cheraw, SC. In March they fought at Averysboro and Bentonville, NC. He transferred to Company D on the consolidation of the regiment with several other Georgia units on 9 April, and was surrendered with the Regulars at Greensboro, NC on 26 April 1865 and paroled there on 1 May.

In 1870 he was a house carpenter living near his Avent in-laws at Dawson in Terrell County, GA but by 1880 was a mechanic there. He lived in Atlanta after about 1885 and was a contractor there. He had retired and was living with his daughter Callie in Atlanta by 1910 and to at least 1920.

Basic information from the United Confederate Veterans,1 as William H Andrew, with service details from Henderson,2 his Compiled Service Records,3 online from fold3, and his own memoirs, source also of the quote above.4 Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860-1880, 1910, and 1920. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He wrote his memoirs in the 1890s working from his wartime diary. They were published as Footprints of a Regiment: a Recollection of the 1st Georgia Regulars, 1861-1865 (1992), with notes by Richard M. McMurry. Thanks to g-g-g-grandson Kevin Whitehead for the pointer to that and a post-war photo from the cover, and the poke to look further into Sergeant Andrews.

He married Amanda Avent (1840-c. 1888) in October 1867 and they had 5 children.

His brother Washington De Lafayette Andrews (b. 1841) was also in Company M, but was killed at Savage Station, VA on 29 June 1862.

04/15/1838; Fort Gaines, GA

11/14/1920; Atlanta, GA; burial in Hollywood Cemetery, Atlanta, GA