William Sharpe marched with Gen. Sherman from Atlanta to the sea

William Sharpe was my great-great-great-great-grandfather. He was born August 26, 1842 in Hendricks County, Indiana. He enlisted in Company C, 70th Regiment, Indiana Infantry Volunteers, on July 22, 1862 in Clayton, Indiana. He served in the 20th Corps, 1st Brigade, and 3rd Division and participated in the following battles and skirmishes: September 30, 1862 – Russellville, Kentucky May 14 & 15, 1864 – Resaca, Georgia May 18 & 19, 1864 – Cassville, Georgia May 25 to June 5, 1864 – New Hope Church, Georgia June 10 to July 3, 1864 – Marietta, Georgia with combats at Lost Mountain, Kennesaw Mountain, Brush Mountain and other points July 20, 1864 – Peach Tree Creek, Georgia July 22 to September 2, 1864 – Atlanta, Georgia December 11 to 21, 1864 – Savannah, Georgia siege March 19 to 21, 1865 – Bentonville, North Carolina He marched with Gen. William T. Sherman from Atlanta to the sea and thence onwards to Washington, D.C. He was present at the Grand Review on Pennsylvania Avenue in said city. He was honorably discharged from the military service of the United States on June 8, 1865. And his listing under privates on the 70th regiment C Company rooster http://www.civilwarindex.com/armyin/soldiers/70th_in_infantry_soldiers.pdf The following is excerpted from L. Wallace Duncan’s “History of Neosho and Wilson Counties Kansas” (Monitor Printing Company, Fort Scott, Kansas, 1902): “It is with satisfaction that we are permitted to record in this article the life of one who has been so prominently connected with the agricultural interests of Wilson County and whose early settlement in Pleasant Valley township places him in the list of prairie pioneers.  It was in July 1870, that William Sharpe came to Wilson County and entered a part of the public domain preparatory to the career which awaited him as a home-builder in this state by way of Ringold County, IA where he went around the close of the civil war. “Mr. Sharpe was born in Hendricks County, IN on August 26, 1842.  His father was William Sharpe and his mother was Sarah Harmon both of whom were native of East Tennessee.  The parents moved to central Indiana about 1835 where they died ten years later leaving a family of six children, the youngest William at age 3.  His education was necessarily much neglected, but as he found an abiding place in the home of a neighbor of the Sharpe family, Benjamin Pickett. In the public schools of the community he received the rudiments of a common English education.  He entered the Union army July 22, 1862, enlisting in Company C, 70th Indiana volunteer infantry, commanded by ex-President Benjamin Harrison, with which he saw three years of hard service. “The 17th Indiana was organized in August, 1862 and proceeded at once to Kentucky which was then common battle ground between the contending forces of the Union and Confederacy.  After spending a little better that a year in Kentucky and Tennessee in miscellaneous service of guard duty, chasing bushwhackers, intercepting the enemy’s supplies and affording protection to the loyal people of that section, it entered the Atlanta campaign in the spring of 1864 and from that time on till the close of the war did its full share towards crushing the rebellion.  At the battle of Resaca, Georgia its casualties amounted in killed and wounded to 172 men. Its total death loss during the term of its service was 203, nearly half of whom were killed outright on the battle field.  With the exception of a few months spent in the hospital at Gallatin, TN; where he was down with the fever, Sharpe was with his regiment from the date of his enlistment till close of hostilities, receiving his discharge June 8, 1865.  He was engaged in eleven hard fought battles: Russelville, KY; Resaca, GA; Cassville, GA; New Hope Church, GA; Lost Mountain, GA; Bentonville, NC; Pumpkin Vine Creek, GA; Kennesaw Mountain, GA; Savannah, GA; Averasborough, NC. “The war over Mr. Sharpe returned to the farm after residing a short time in Indiana went to Ringold County, IA where on September 16, 1866, he married Sarah E. McAninch who was born in Hendricks County, IN and was a daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth McAninch, who moved from Kentucky, their native state, to Indiana thence to Iowa about 1866.  William moved from Iowa to Kansas, as stated, in July 1870, at which time he became a resident of Pleasant Valley township, Wilson County. … “In February, 1882, Sarah died leaving Alvan V, a lawyer in Lawrence, KS; Orlan Dayton, a physician in Neodesha, KS; Minnie the wife of Rev. W.R. Newman of Neodesha, KS; and Etta E. wife of Enoch Wiggans a farmer of Wilson County, KS. October 30, 1883, William married Mrs. Cornelia A Starr, widow of Philip Starr and daughter of Abram and Barbara Long. Bertram Gresham Sharpe.”