William Newton Mercer Otey was born on April 15, 1842, in Columbia, Tennessee, to James and Eliza Otey. His father was a minister who owned $35,000 of real estate and $6,000 of personal property by 1860. The family lived in Maury County, Tennessee, until the 1850s, when they moved to Memphis, Tennessee.

 

Otey enrolled at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in the late 1850s, and he and his fellow cadets stood guard during the hanging of abolitionist John Brown in December 1859. He resigned from VMI in 1861 in order to join the Confederate army. He initially served as a drill master for Confederate recruits before mustering in as a private in the Rockbridge Light Artillery in August 1862.  

 

On October 10, 1862, he received a commission as a 1^st lieutenant in the Confederate Signal Corps. He served on the staffs of General Leonidas Polk and General Nathan Bedford Forrest. He sought a promotion in July 1863, noting that it was “a little discouraging…to daily meet my old classmates of the Virginia Military Institute, who have outstripped me and among whom are some, I must say, that are no more qualified for the position they hold than I.” A Confederate official, writing in support, declared that Otey was a “young man of very decided military talents. He has been thoroughly educated as a soldier and has rendered good service to the country.” His request for promotion, however, was unsuccessful.

 

Otey moved to San Francisco, California, after the war, and he worked for the San Francisco Chronicle. He married Geraldine Goger on June 22, 1876, and they had at least three children: James, born around 1877; Mary, born around 1878; and Paul, born around 1880. The family moved to Gold Hill, Nevada, in the late 1870s, and Otey worked as secretary for the Yellow Jacket Silver Mining Company. They returned to San Francisco in the 1880s. He suffered a “stroke of apoplexy” on December 12, 1898, and he died in San Francisco four days later.

 

Image: William Newton Mercer Otey (courtesy VMI Archives Digital Collections)

SOURCES