Group 3
William H. Keepers[1]
Rank: Private, Company A, 23rd
Wisconsin Infantry
Born/died: October, 1844 – December 29, 1904
Residence at death: Monmouth
County, New Jersey
Served: August 14, 1862 – July 4, 1865
Age at enlistment: 17 years, 10 months
Remarks:
William was a student in
Madison, Wisconsin at the time of enlistment.
He was listed as 5’ 9 ˝ “, with blue eyes, light hair and a light
complexion. He participated in the Battle
of Chickasaw Bayou, Arkansas Post, Cypress Bend, Port Gibson, Champion Hills,
Big B. R. [Black River] Bridge, the capture of Vicksburg and Jackson,
Mississippi, Carrion Crow Bayou, Louisiana, Mansfield, Jackson, Louisiana, the
Siege of Spanish Fort and Blakely, Alabama.
He had a “seat on board the
Hospital Boat, April 30, 1864.” He was
listed as absent and in a hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana, on May 10,
1864. He was a patient at McPherson
General Hospital, Vicksburg, on October 15, 1864. [Young's Point, La., near Vicksburg, where three-fourths of the
men were stricken with virulent diseases because of adverse sanitary
conditions.][2] In October, 1864, there appears to be a
“stop” in William’s pay “for 1 pair of great coat straps.”
Two marriages were
noted. His first wife, Adelaide E.
Keepers, died in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1899. They had one child, Arthur H. Keepers, born in 1880. He remarried Alice M. (Courlis) Keepers in
1902. Alice had been previously married
to Ira Courlis. They were divorced
March 8, 1887, and she had a son, Harry Courlis, who was 3 years, 7 months old
at the time.
William is listed as a bridge
builder/contractor in various censuses.
He lived in Milwaukee (1880), and, Younkers, New York (1900 &1910)[3].