William T. Moffatt Odiorne was born around 1843 in Boston, Massachusetts, to Samuel and Clarissa Odiorne. His father was a carpenter who owned $1,600 of real estate by 1850. He grew up and attended school in Stoneham, Massachusetts, and by the early 1860s, he was working as an apothecary.
He enlisted in the Union army on August 27, 1862, and he mustered in as a hospital steward with the 32nd Massachusetts Infantry the following day. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 4 ½ inches tall, with light hair and grey eyes. The regiment took part in the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Gettysburg, the Overland Campaign, and the siege of Petersburg. He mustered out on May 29, 1865.
He settled in Wakefield, Massachusetts, after the war, and he earned a living as a bookkeeper. He married Charlotte Wright on November 11, 1868. He drowned in the Charles River in Wakefield on May 22, 1888.