William enlisted on February 20, 1864 and was assigned to Company H, 1^st Battalion, 13^th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Army Regulars on April 1 at Newport Barracks, Kentucky, the Regimental Headquarters.  Due to the inclement weather, he spent about six weeks in the hospital where he was told he had heart disease.  It appears he remained at Newport Barracks for about a year.  Newport Barracks was the 13th Regimental Headquarters under command of General William Tecumseh Sherman, although he, and the rest of the 1st Battalion, was in Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia fighting Condederates.

The Regimental Headquarters was moved from Newport Barracks, May 10, 1865, to Camp Dennison, Ohio, across the Ohio River near Cincinnati.  The 1st Battalion was transferred to Nashville, Tennessee on April 1, 1864 where it remained until July, 1865.  The War was over on July 9, 1865.  On July 1st, it left Nashville for St. Louis; then to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas on August 24.  During November, 1865, the Regimental Headquarters was also moved to Fort Leavenworth.  

At this point, William would have traveled from Camp Dennison to Fort Leavenworth, where Company H joined the others of the 1st Battalion, and proceeded up the Missouri River to establish a military post north of the Black Hills.  But on arriving at Fort Sully, Dakota Territory, on April 27, 1866 they re-embarked under orders to establish a new post at or near Fort Benton, Montana Territory, under Captain Webb.  They arrived at the mouth of the Judith River to establish Camp Cooke on May 19, 1866.

Fort Benton was an old trading fort sold to the Army in 1865, to protect the freight and mail being carried from Fort Benton to Helena over the old Mullan Military Wagon Road (by then called Montana's Benton Road). Company H didn't remain in Benton, but rather moved upriver about 8 miles past the great falls of the Missouri to eight log buildings, the site St. Peter's Mission that had just been abandoned by the Jesuits. This post on a bend in the Missouri River near today's Ulm, Montana, became known during the winter of 1866-67 as Camp Webb.  [Source: Ken Robison, Historian, Overholser Historical Research Center, Fort Benton, MT]  While in Montana, William contracted scurvy.  He was discharged on February 20, 1867 at Fort Benton.

It does not appear that William saw any action in the Civil War and I do not know that he saw any fighting with the Indians either.  He missed a large battle with 2500 Sioux and Crow Indians at Camp Cooke on May 17, 1868 which occurred after he was discharged.  The hostiles surrounded and attacked the post for about six hours until they were driven off.  The garrison at this time consisted of Companies B and H, 13th Infantry, under the command of Major Clinton.

On March 4, 1891, William applied for an Invalid Pension because of neuralgia, heart disease, rheumatism and loss of teeth, a result of scurvy. His initial physical states "that in the summer of 1864 at Nashville, Tennessee, being exposed to inclement weather, he became sick and was sent to an hospital in Newport, Kentucky where he was under treatment for about 6 weeks and was told that he had heart disease. He says that he pretty well recovered at the time, but for the last 2 years a little exercise or excitement will set his heart fluttering and he loses all his strength, which incapacitates him for ordinary manual labor. He further states that about two years ago he suffered la Grippe and since then has been troubled with intense neuralgia on the left side of his face on account of which he cannot expose his face to the least cold or dampness without exciting these neuralgic pains, he suffers once in a while flashes of pain on the right side of his face. Says that he has been troubled at times with pains in his back, shoulders and arms and since he had la Grippe he has suffered pain in the right hip, shooting down one thigh with cramps in the right calf, shooting in the sole of the right foot, cramps of right toes, that he suffers pain in the right groin, shooting down the inside of the thigh to the knee (obturator nerve). Says he is lame in right leg, usually uses a cane and that every step hurts his hip with now and then intervals of freedom from pain. In 1866 in Montana he incurred scurvy resulting in disease of his teeth. Says that the last 4 or 5 years he suffered pain in the small of his back which seems to come around his body to the front part of his abdomen, that his urine varies in color and quantity, passes at times free, at times only drop by drop." The doctor concluded that he had no heart disease or rheumatism but that the whole of his disabilities were due to neuralgia, and that he was entitled to a pension. In 1893 and again in 1902 he applied for increases in his pension. It was recommended that he receive $12 per month.