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William Watts

15th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry
The Scandinavian Regiment

Database Record Change Request

Name at Enlist

William Watts

Birth Name
Lived

ca. 1814 –

Resident of Muster-In

Peoria, Peoria County, IL

Company at Enlistment

D

Rank at Enlistment

Private

Muster Date

13 Feb 1862

William Watts joined the WI 15th Infantry, Company D. The men of the company called themselves the “Norway Wolf Hunters.” They were also known as the “Waupun Company” because so many of its members were from Waupun.

The army listed him as living in Peoria, IL, age 47, and married. He enlisted for three years on December 28, 1861 at Waupun, WI and mustered at Madison, WI on February 13, 1862 as a Private (Menig). On June 3. 1862, he was listed as being sick and on furlough. He was also sick and on furlough at Peoria from March 30, 1863 to May 1, 1863. He was sent there from Bird’s Point. Watts was absent without leave in Galesburg, IL and remained absent without leave. He was listed as a deserter. It was said that he had been discharged from the service or was dead. Scott Meeker noted that a soldier of this name entered the service from Waupun, WI, and deserted on March 30, 1863.

Sources: Series 1200: Records of Civil War Regiments, 1861-1900, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, boxes 76-6, 77-3, 78-3; Regimental Muster and Descriptive Rolls, 1861-1865, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, vol.20, p.64; Ole A. Buslett, Det Femtende Regiment, Wisconsin Frivillige [The Fifteenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers] (Decorah, Iowa, 1894), p.459.