William Burrows (Burrus) was born around 1831 in Albemarle County, Virginia. He was born into slavery and was owned by Nannie Burrows, who eventually relocated him to Howard County, Missouri. Burrows performed farm labor, and on August 1, 1856, he married Mary Louis Steward. They had eleven children of whom seven of their names are known: John H., born around 1856; George, born around 1858; Belle, born around 1859; Annie, born around 1861; Willie, born around 1865; Lula, born around 1872; and Warren, born around 1873.

Burrows enlisted as a private in the Union army on November 29, 1863, in Booneville, Missouri, and mustered in on December 11 at Benton Barracks in St. Louis. His service record describes him as 5 feet, 7 inches tall, with black hair, black eyes, and black complexion. He spent most of his service in Company E of the 62nd USCT Infantry Regiment, but the army transferred him to Company C on January 19, 1866. Burrows served in Louisiana and Texas, and on May 12-13, 1865, he participated in the Battle of Palmito Ranch--one of the last battles of the war. He faced a regimental trial sometime during the war for fighting within the army, but the court found him "not guilty." He received a two month furlough for October and November 1865, and he mustered out on March 31, 1866, in Brownsville, Texas. 

The details of Burrows's life after the war are somewhat unclear. He probably lived in Missouri with his wife and eleven children, working as a farmer until he died of smallpox on February 12, 1873, in Warrensburg. His widow Mary, who moved to California shortly after her husband's death, began receiving an $8-per-month pension in 1893. The amount eventually increased to $20 per month. Mary died of appendicitis on November 20, 1916, in Xenia, Ohio.