WILLIAM SYDNEY MORGAN -- 118th INFANTRYSPENT 2 YEARS IN THE VETERAN RESERVE CORPS - On August 6, 1862, 1stlieutenant John Carter recruited William Sydney Morgan in Ellenburg.William, who was born in Canada, was mustered into Captain Levi Dominy'sCompany B as a private on August 29th, just two days before the118th Infantry started off for Washington.They travelled through New York City, Newark and Baltimore, beforearriving at Camp Adirondack near Findley Hospital, north of the capitolin Washington.Near the end of April, they started out for the Virginia Peninsula andthe defenses of Suffolk. They stayed at Camp Nansemond for two days,then near Fort McClellan for another two. For the first two weeks ofMay, they were in camp near Fort Union and then until mid-June in campnear the Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad near Suffolk. While in this campthey participated in the Blackwater Raid and the destruction of therailroad.Near the end of May, they started their reconnaissance toward Petersburgand in mid-June, they were en route for Yorktown by railroad andtransport ships where they camped until June 26th. In June, Williambecame incapacitated and was sent to hospital at Hampton, VA.On September 26, 1863, he was transferred as a private to the 31stCompany of the II Corps of the Veteran Reserve Corps, was mustered outfrom the Corps on August 20, 1865, and returned to Ellenburg.William married Lodema Sartwell in 1866 and went West. The first oftheir eleven children was born in Wisconsin in 1868. He supported hisfamily by working in the lumber business and running a boarding housefor lumbermen.William died in Keenan, WI, in 1919 and was buried in the KeenanCemetery. Lodema joined him there in 1936 after receiving her WidowsPension for sixteen years.
