WILLIAM WINTERS -- 96th INFANTRY DISCHARGED FOR DEMENTIA - William Winters enlisted in the 96th Infantry on December 10, 1861, and was assigned to Company H as a private. His enlistment papers say that he had brown eyes and black hair, a dark complexion and was six foot one and a half inches tall. He was appointed corporal on January 18, 1862, and promoted to sergeant on March 10th. William left his wife, Zadah Knapp, at home with his daughter and he went to Plattsburgh to drill with his regiment. He is listed as having participated in the following campaigns: Williamsburg, VA., Fair Oaks, and the Seven Days' Fight that ended on July 2, 1862. On July 1st, William was stricken with typhoid fever and was left sick at a barn at Malvern Hill. He was found later, mistaken for a deserter and arrested, then restored to duty with no loss of pay. He was ill again and left at Poplar Hill on June 28th. He was captured on June 30th at Savage Station and taken to Libby Prison in Richmond on July13. William was kept for six weeks before he was paroled and brought to City Point Hospital near Petersburgh down river from Richmond. On August 3, 1862, he was brought to Hammond Hospital, Lookout Point, MD, where he was discharged in October for "dementia". His pension was later granted for "dementia", deafness, piles and chronic colitis. We know that William recovered from his dementia, as he became a lumber mill boss in Mooers Forks. Zaida died in 1878, then his home at Cannon's Corners burned to the ground along with the mills where he was working. William decided to go West and ended up in Hesperia, MI, to work in the lumber business. He married Hester Holmes Shoemaker, a widow, there. William Winters died in Hesperia in 1908 was buried in the West Hesperia Cemetery about a mile and a half west of town.
