William Edgeworth Bird was born on July 21, 1825, in Hancock County, Georgia. He grew up and attended school in Sparta, Georgia, and he graduated from Georgetown University in 1844. He married Sarah Baxter on February 24, 1848, and they had at least two children: Saida, born around 1848; and Wilson, born around 1850. He lived in Hancock County, and he earned a living as a planter. By 1860, he owned $12,000 of real estate and $31,000 of personal property, and he enslaved at least 22 people.

 

He supported secession during the winter of 1860-61, and he ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Georgia Secession Convention. In July 1861, he received a commission as a 1^st lieutenant in Company E of the 15^th Georgia Infantry. The regiment took part in the Seven Days’ Battles, the Second Battle of Manassas, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Gettysburg, the Battle of Chickamauga, the Overland Campaign, the siege of Petersburg, and the Appomattox campaign.

 

He was wounded in the Second Battle of Manassas, but he eventually recovered and rejoined the regiment. He eventually earned a promotion to captain. He remained devoted to the Confederate cause, insisting in September 1864 that “All will yet be well…God will yet bless our cause.” He also remained fiercely committed to slavery. In August 1863, for example, he assured his wife that, “If we come out [of the war] with flying colours, [slavery] is established for centuries.” He surrendered to Union forces on May 20, 1865.

 

He returned to Georgia after the war, and he died on January 11, 1867.

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