WILLIAM WINTERS -- 96th INFANTRYDISCHARGED FOR DEMENTIA - William Winters enlisted in the 96thInfantry on December 10, 1861, and was assigned to Company H as aprivate. His enlistment papers say that he had brown eyes and blackhair, a dark complexion and was six foot one and a half inches tall. Hewas appointed corporal on January 18, 1862, and promoted to sergeant onMarch 10th.William left his wife, Zadah Knapp, at home with his daughter and hewent to Plattsburgh to drill with his regiment. He is listed as havingparticipated 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 sickat a barn at Malvern Hill. He was found later, mistaken for a deserterand arrested, then restored to duty with no loss of pay. He was illagain and left at Poplar Hill on June 28th. He was captured on June30th 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 CityPoint Hospital near Petersburgh down river from Richmond. On August 3,1862, he was brought to Hammond Hospital, Lookout Point, MD, where hewas discharged in October for "dementia"His pension was later granted for \"dementia\", deafness, piles andchronic colitis. We know that William recovered from his dementia, as hebecame a lumber mill boss in Mooers Forks. Zaida died in 1878, then hishome at Cannon\'s Corners burned to the ground along with the millswhere he was working.William decided to go West and ended up in Hesperia, MI, to work in thelumber business. He married Hester Holmes Shoemaker, a widow, there.William Winters died in Hesperia in 1908 was buried in the West HesperiaCemetery about a mile and a half west of town.
