Willie Thomas Patterson

In 1860 he was a 19 year old student on his parents' large plantation at Durhamville in Orange County, NC. He enlisted on 18 June 1861 at Fort Macon, and mustered as a Private in the Orange Guards (later Company G, 27th North Carolina Infantry) on 31 August.

He was wounded in the thigh with compound fracture and captured in action on 17 September 1862.

His leg was amputated and he was admitted to the US Army General Hospital in Frederick, MD on 27 October. He was transferred for exchange on 27 April 1863 and exchanged on 2 May at City Point, VA. He was discharged on disability on 15 August 1864.

In 1870 he was a "cripple" living with his doctor brother John at Chapel Hill, NC, and in 1880 was a bookkeeper in Durham.

[In 1882] Mr. Willie T. Patterson, an experienced bookkeeper, and of rare business talent, entered on the duties of Bursar [of the University of North Carolina], with intelligent zeal which had no impairment by the loss of a leg at Sharpsburg. Although a private in the Confederate Army he was generally called Major Patterson.

Basic casualty information from Wilson.1 His service from the Roster 2 and and his Compiled Service Records,3 online from fold3. Further wound and hospital details from the Patient List.4 Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860-1900. The quote above from Kemp P. Battle's History of the University of North Carolina (1912), Volume II [electronic edition from UNC]. His gravesite is on Findagrave. Patterson's first name is less commonly listed as William.

His cousin James N Faucette and half-uncle Robert D Patterson were also in Company G and at Sharpsburg.

05/20/1841; Orange County, NC

01/10/1910; Orange County, NC; burial in Patterson Family Cemetery, Chapel Hill, NC