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Federal (USV)

Captain

William Henry Simpson

(1835 - 1912)

Home State: Pennsylvania

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 125th Pennsylvania Infantry

Before Antietam

A farmer from Huntington County, PA he enrolled there and mustered on 23 April 1861 at Harrisburg as Ensign of Company H, 15th Pennsylvania Infantry for 3 months' service. He was 2nd Lieutenant when he mustered out with them on 8 August 1861. He enrolled again, for 9 months on 12 August 1862 as First Lieutenant of Company F, 125th Pennsylvania Infantry. He was promoted to Captain 4 days later, on the 16th.

On the Campaign

He was wounded in the shoulder in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

The rest of the War

He mustered out with his company on 18 May 1863 and returned home to farm.

After the War

In 1865 he went to Mercer County, IL and by 1870 and to at least 1910 was a farmer at Norwood, IL. He began receiving a veteran's pension for disability in August 1872.

References & notes

His service from Bates 1 and the Card File.2 Wound detail from Nelson.3 Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1870-1910. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Elizabeth Jane Smith (1840-1912) in December 1864 and they had 6 children.

Birth

07/12/1835; Huntingdon County, PA

Death

03/01/1912; Norwood, IL; burial in Norwood Cemetery, Mercer County, IL

Notes

1 Bates, Samuel Penniman, History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-65, Harrisburg: State of Pennsylvania, 1868-1871, Vol. I, p. 148; Vol. IV, p. 119 [AotW citation 1335]

2 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Adjutant-General, Pennsylvania Civil War Veterans' Card File, 1861-1866, Published <2005, first accessed 01 July 2005, <http://www.digitalarchives.state.pa.us/archive.asp?view=ArchiveIndexes&ArchiveID=17> [AotW citation 32238]

3 Nelson, John H., As Grain Falls Before the Reaper: The Federal Hospital Sites and Identified Federal Casualties at Antietam, Hagerstown: John H. Nelson, 2004, p. 388 [AotW citation 32239]

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