Person:William McMillin (1)

Taken From: History of Wabasha County, date and pages unk.

William Harvey McMillin, barber, Lake City, is the third son of James M., and was born September 30, 1839, at Wilkesville, Ohio, and was but three years of age when the family removed to Illinois. After he was eighteen years old he cared for himself and worked at butchering for three years. He came to Minnesota in 1859 and assisted his brother in farming at Bear valley, attending school there one winter term. Returning to Illinois he was among the first to respond to the call of his country in its hour of danger. Entering Co. B, of the 13th Ill. Vols., he saw a great deal of hard service in the western army.

The following endorsement which is found in red ink upon his discharge, explains itself: "Said W. H. McMillin was with the command in the actions at Chickasaw Bayou, Arkansas Post, Jackson, May 14 and July 10-16, 1863, siege of Vicksburg and assault May 22, 1863, Tuscumbia, Lookout Mountain, Mission Ridge and Ringgold: has marched over thirty five hundred miles and faithfully performed the duties of a soldier." Among other notable engagements in which he participated may be named Wilson's Creek, Pea Ridge, Buzzards Roost, Snake's Gap and Milligans Bend. He was detailed in the Mississippi scouts, and for five months commanded a squad of seventy five mounted men, doing excellent service, losing only three men while passing through many hot skirmishes. At one time, after being driven seven miles under the spur, his party of ten men was driven over a steep bluff, where the horses slid down on their haunches, killing one man and a horse. After thus escaping, Mr. McMillin laid an ambuscade, and killed or captured nearly the entire force of rebel pursuers, eighty in number, being reinforced by two companies of infantry. After this he was detailed with nineteen comrades as body guard to Gen. P. J. Osterhaus, where he served till the close of the war. At Chickasaw Bayou his colonel, John B. Wyman, was killed by a sharpshooter, and "Sandy Bill", as our subject was best known to his comrades, crept through the bushes for fifteen rods and picked off the sharpshooter. Mr. McMillin was never wounded by a bullet, but was knocked down by the bursting of a shell in front of Vicksburg, and his head and neck partially paralyzed so that he was not fit for duty for some time. He was laid up with dropsy in the old marine hospital at St. Louis for three months at another time. Was never in the guardhouse or under arrest. While serving as body guard to Gen. Osterhaus he acted most of the time as dispatch-carrier. While on this duty on one occasion, he rode half a mile under galling fire, and thus saved two thousand comrades from captivity and the pangs of hell in Libby prison. Another time, with three companions, he charged over the rebel pickets, gained the bluff across Chickamauga creek. and after running a half-mile gauntlet, gained a covered bridge; here they placed their horses across the entrance of the bridge, and by firing beneath their bodies kept the rebel calvary at bay until artillery and reinforcements were brought to bear. In the movement the Union forces did not lose a man. Returning to Minnesota at the close of the war, Mr. McMillin engaged in farming a short time; removed to Lake City and worked in a butcher shop three years; for past nine years he has kept a barber shop - last two with a partner. February 22, 1865, he was united in marriage with Miss Caroline Culver, who was born in Walnut, Illinois. They have one adopted daughter, Bertie, born July 16, 1880. Mr. McMillin is district G.D.M.W. in the A.O.U.W. He is chief of the Lake City Hook and Ladder Company and had many narrow escapes in the pursuit of his duty.

1. ↑ James McMillin, 1850 US census, Dist. 37, Whiteside Co, Illinois, pg 388, dwelling 192, family 192; Ancestry.com from National Archives microf.
2. ↑ H.H. Hill & Co., History of Wabasha County: together with biographical matter, statistics, etc. (Chicago: H.H. Hill & Co., 1884) (http://www.rootsweb.com/~mnwabbio/m.shtml : accessed 12 Sep 2006)
   p. 1146-1147.