The following letter from William Knight’s pension file was sent to me for transcription by my friend Gina Denham who is showcasing William’s service in the Civil war along with many other British citizens who served in the American Civil War. As a teenage, William served in the 61st Foot of the British army to put down the rebellion in India against British rule in the late 1850s. He then went with the Royal Irish Fusiliers to participate in the Battle of Shanghai (1861-62) in China before coming to the United States in the middle of the Civil War.

It’s a bit difficult to trace William’s service record in the United States. It appears that he walked into a Philadelphia recruiting office in the fall of 1864, accepting a $400 bounty to serve in the 29th Pennsylvania Infantry. By this stage of he war, the regiment had been moved from the Eastern Theatre of the war to the Western Theatre and so he was transported to Chattanooga in time to fight the rebels at Dalton and then to help defend Nashville from Hood’s army in December 1864. Shortly afterward we learn that William deserted for reasons explained in his letter and then enlisted in the 195th Ohio Infantry where he accepted yet another bounty.

Becoming inadvertently separated from the 195th Ohio Infantry while enroute to the Shenandoah Valley in March 1865, William was arrested as a deserter and taken to Fort McHenry in Baltimore. He was subsequently sent to Alexandria to stand trial and was found guilt and made to pay a fine and return to duty. At war’s end, believing his contract to serve for the duration of the war only, William booked passage to London to visit his friends. He then returned to serve two years in the 2nd US Infantry from 1867-69.

William’s life seems to have been filled with tragedy and misfortune, perhaps a consequence of his overindulgence in spiritous liquors. An notice for William in a London paper about 1900 claims a “Sad Ending of an Old Soldier” who, at age 60, was living on the streets and without means to purchase food and clothing.

William was the 84th Member of the London Branch of American Civil War veterans. Gina is currently writing a book to commemorate the service of these veterans.

Transcription

12 Northumberland Street West [London, England]
January 7th 1910

Sir,

William Knight, late of the 35th United States Infantry, who was discharged at Fort Concho, Texas, on the 23rd of September 1869 by reason of a surgeon’s certificate with service near two years humbly appeals to you under distressed circumstances who is 70 years old and unable to get employment under the liability act, wishes to state about two regiments in the Civil War—the 29th [Pennsylvania] Vol. Infantry, my enlistment being 27 October 1864 one year and in Philadelphia, received 400 dollars state bounty of which was taken from me and received a bank check on the First Nation Bank of Philadelphia & left with a detachment to Tennessee to join the regiment but was detained at Chattanooga & was shortly after engaged with rebels at Dalton, Georgia, and was on the last train that left Chattanooga for Nashville, Tennessee to oppose General Hood’s advance on Nashville. As soon as we got out of the train, we was employed in making the breastworks in front of Fort Negley and Fort Zollicoffer. There was a large amount of prisoners captured a few days after.

[While] my detachment of the 20th Army Corps was on the march for Murfreesboro, Tennessee, I had the misfortune of being robbed of this check. I wrote to the bank sometime after to stop the payment. This played on my mind. At the same time I was bad with a bowel complaint but not under the doctor’s [care]. It was very cold weather when I made up my mind to get to the bank. [Deserting, I] got into Kentucky and walked through the State of Kentucky, part by day and night and on the way noticed armed men which [I believed were on the] look [out] for government troops, but found out they was guerrillas. They asked me to halt and they asked me where I came from & [I] told them Nashville. They proposed to shoot me but one of them that was an Englishman and born in London [intervened and] they let me go stating that I would see more of these men. I came away on my road to Owensboro about three miles from there and obtained employment in shelling Indian corn where I got enough money to pay my fare to Cincinnati.

After I got into Cincinnati, I enlisted for the 195th Ohio Regiment and got the same amount of bounty and was in Camp Chase until the regiment left for the Shenandoah Valley. My enlistment was the 23rd of January 1865 for one year, or during the war. This regiment was organized at Columbus, Ohio. [When I was on] the train, [I got off with] some men to get whiskey in their canteens, [leaving] our knapsacks inside the train. Some got [back] on the train but I was stopped. The train was in motion and I was not allowed. I did not know what to do. Having money in my pocketbook and finding out where the regiment was going to, I paid my fare to Baltimore and got in company with a man who advised me to change my clothes as he said I was in a hot spot and would be arrested. This proved true. I gave this man the money and got [civilian] clothes. I went to the theatre at night, leaving my soldier clothes till the next morning with the keeper of a saloon bar, but when I got to the theatre, I was arrested by a detective on suspicion of being a deserter and was taken to Fort McHenry where I was brought before the Provost Marshal. He asked me what [regiment I] belonged to as it would be better for me and I confessed the truth. He said he would take charge of my money and it would be transferred to my regiment [telling me that] after I left the fort, if I took the [money] outside, I would be robbed and he would [give me] a little money to get food with.

I did not remain long. I was sent to Alexandria to be tried [for desertion] resulting in a fine of 30 dollars and returned to duty. I joined the regiment at Summit Point a few miles from Charlestown and told my case to the Colonel in camp who gave me my bounty and two days after was on Camp Guard and spoke to the Colonel on sentry where I considered I done my duty as a soldier. After the war [ended], the regiment was ordered to Alexandria doing duty with the 2nd District of Columbia Regiment when I became ill with ague and dysentery, passing blood. I had drawn two installments of my government bounty (66 dollars). The war was over—my contract being one year or during the war—I went to Bladensburg and bought a suit of clothes and took the train to New York and bought ten bottles of medicine in a drug store and paid 35 dollars passage to Liverpool on a visit to my friends in London on the City of Baltimore and returning in 1866 and served in the 2nd United States Infantry [where I] was made corporal of Co. B at Louisville, Kentucky under the name of William Smith and got my bounty from the 29th Pennsylvania Regt. and came away June 19, 1869.

William Knight, alias William Smith, wishes to state that when enlisted for the 2nd US Infantry at Louisville, Kentucky, I was asked by Captain Lacey of Co. B whether I had been in the army before. I stated that I was in the 29th Pennsylvania—a regiment in the war, that I lost a bank check on the 1st National Bank of Philadelphia for the sum of 380 dollars and I put it in the hands of a claim agent, As I found out, it was in the hands of the government. He told me to write to Mr. Jackson and tell him that the Captain of my company would write to the government and he got this bounty which I had an order payable by any paymaster the sum of 380 dollars as William Smith, 29th Pennsylvania Volunteers the day I left the regiment 1st day of June 1867. I was under arrest for sending a barrel of beer for the use of the company—that is the reason I gave the name of William Smith.

I remain respectively, — William Knight, 12 Northumberland Street West [London, England]