William Alexander Jenkins

In 1860 he was a 30 year old lawyer in Warrenton, NC and served as North Carolina Attorney General from 1857-62. He joined the 46th North Carolina Infantry as Captain of Company C on 26 March 1862, but was appointed Lieutenant Colonel when the regiment's field officers were elected at their initial organization on 4 April near Raleigh.

He succeeded to command of the regiment when Colonel Hall assumed command of the Brigade from the wounded Colonel Manning on 17 September in the West Woods.

He resigned his commission on 1 January 1863...

"... to take control of his father-in-law's estate of considerable value. Colonel Jenkins was for many years, and up to his death, the most successful practitioner of law in the county. He was not a profound lawyer, nor was he of literary taste or culture, but he was the brightest intellect the county produced in his generation. He was of medium statue, with very black curling hair, regular features, and strikingly intelligent and sparkling black eyes. He was quick and energetic in all his movements, mental and physical. In his addresses at the bar, and in his political speeches, he was impassioned and fiery. He was attending Halifax Court, when he died very suddenly, only forty years of age."1

Service details from Moore2 and Clark3. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His death place also found in a notice in the Raleigh Weekly Standard of 17 November 1869.

He married Delzora Marianna "Della" Clark (later Shaw, 1840-1897) and they had a daughter Mary (1860-1943). Della's father James Simpson Clark (1797-1862) was a very successful farmer at Greenville in Pitt County, NC; he died two days after the battle at Sharpsburg.

11/14/1829 in NC

11/09/1869; Halifax, NC; burial in Old Warrenton Cemetery, Warrenton, NC