Willard Selden was born around 1843 in New York to Joseph and Almeda Selden. His father was a Methodist clergyman. The family lived in Independence, New York, until the early 1850s, when they moved to Willing, New York. He enlisted in the Union army on September 2, 1861, and mustered in as a corporal in Company K of the 85th New York Infantry on September 6. He was eventually reduced to the ranks. He was killed on May 31, 1862, in the Battle of Seven Pines.