William J. Stanley was living in Lowndes County, Mississippi, by the early 1860s. He enlisted in the Confederate army on September 12, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company I of the 43^rd Mississippi Infantry. The regiment was stationed in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and it surrendered on July 4, 1863.

 

Stanley received a parole soon afterwards, and he was apparently absent without leave for at least 50 days. He had rejoined the regiment by January 1864, and he took part in the Atlanta campaign and the Battle of Nashville. He supported General Joseph E. Johnston, and he opposed President Jefferson Davis’s decision to replace Johnston with General John Bell Hood in July 1864. Since Hood took command of the Army of Tennessee, he observed that August, “the army has become verry much demoralized [and] a good many are deserting and going home.” He was “sick of the army,” and he advised a relative that “If you had sean as much of this war as I have you would stay with your grand Par till you ware an old man.”

 

He surrendered in May 1865 as part of General Richard Taylor’s army, and he received his parole on May 9, 1865. He died sometime after the war.

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