Pvt. William Townsend of Robeson County

William Townsend was born in 1842 in Robeson County. He was 6 feet, six inches tall and a private in the 18th North Carolina Regiment, 8th Volunteers, Branch and Lane Brigade, Army of Northern Virginia. After the war he farmed, and lived to age 86 in the town of St. Pauls. His wife Ora (Orrie) Prevatte was a 5-foot French Hugenot who lived to age 87. Both drew a pension, and she drew a widow’s pension from the war after he died.