William Vaughn Witherspoon
William Vaughn Witherspoon was born around 1837 in South Carolina to Charles and Frances Witherspoon. His father was a farmer who owned $17,070 of real estate and $28,000 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Sumter, South Carolina, and the family moved to Clarendon, South Carolina, in the 1850s.
He enlisted in the Confederate army on June 19, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company C of Hampton’s Legion. He was promoted to corporal on April 26, 1862, then to 2nd lieutenant in the fall of 1862. The regiment took part in the First Battle of Bull Run, the Peninsula campaign, the Seven Days’ Battles, the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Gettysburg, the Overland Campaign, and the siege of Petersburg.
Witherspoon returned to Clarendon County after the war. He married Ida Cunningham, and they had at least three children: Herbert, born around 1872; William, born around 1874; and Annie, born around 1877. He died of consumption in Clarendon County on January 11, 1880.
DATABASE CONTENT
| (1974) | Witherspoon, William Vaughn | 1837 | 1880-01-11 |
- Conflict Side: Confederacy
- Role: Soldier
- Rank in: Private
- Rank out: 2nd Lieutenant
- Rank highest: 2nd Lieutenant
- Gender: Male
- Race: White
Documents - Records: 1
- (3645) [writer] ~ William V. Witherspoon to Harvey (?), 8 November 1864
Places - Records: 2
Regiments - Records: 2
SOURCES
1850, 1860, and 1880 United States Federal Censuses, available from Ancestry.com; Military Service Records of William Vaughn Witherspoon, available from Fold3.com; Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1925-1970, available from Ancestry.com.
