WILLIAM H. STERLING -- 5th VETERAN INFANTRYJOINED A ZOUAVE REGIMENT - Forty-five-year-old Benoni Tillotson fromMoriah hired eighteen-year-old William H. Sterling to be his substitutein 1865. William enlisted in the 5th Veteran Infantry, a Zouaveregiment, on March 10, 1865, while they were with the Army of thePotomac. The Army was getting ready for Grant's final campaign of thewar -- the Appomattox Campaign that began in the first week of April.William was part of a group of ten men who were recruited in thePlattsburgh area in March. They promised to serve for one year, or untilthe end of the war. When they joined the regiment in the field nearPetersburg, he and three other men were assigned to Company F on April22nd. The rest were scattered through the regiment, mainly Company G.Just a few weeks before William joined the5th on their march back to the capital, the Regiment was activelyengaged in the closing operations between the Army of the Potomac andthe Army of Northern Virginia from March 28th until April 9th.On March 29th, 30th, and 31st, they were engaged along the White OakRoad, before taking part in the assault upon the Confederate forces atFive Forks on April 1st. This assault resulted in the Fall ofPetersburg, and the pursuit of the Confederate Army to AppomattoxCourthouse, VA. On April 9, 1865, the Confederate Army of NorthernVirginia surrendered to the Army of the Potomac. With the surrender ofthe Confederate forces, the regiment was ready to begin the march200-mile march back to Washington, DC in May. On May 23, 1865, they tookpart in the Grand Review of the Armies of the United States downPennsylvania Avenue.After the Review, the regiment moved to Hart Island in the Bronx andstayed there until they mustered out on August 21st.William returned to New York and married. After farming in Crown Pointfor a few years, he and his wife, Lucy Porter, took their children andmoved to Vermont. He died in Leicester, VT, in 1930 and was buried inthe Prospect Cemetery in East Middlebury, about 30 miles east of Moriahwhere he was born.Benoni, who hired William as a substitute, died in Moriah in 1899 andwas buried in the South Moriah Cemetery.Painting by Mark Maritato
