William Warren: Wounded Warrior

Another in our Civil War series from the Union-Sun & Journal, this one details William Warren, a Lockport attorney. Originally appeared in the USJ in 2011.

Sunlight glinted off the cold steel of bayonets lining the edge of the woods.   Boys and men, dressed in blue wool, shifted nervously as they stared across the harvested wheat field toward rebel positions nestled in the forest covering the sides of Cedar Mountain.  The rush of cannonballs passing overhead, exploding all around added to the cacophony of the screams of wounded and dying men.  The plight of the Union Army under the continuous onslaught of Confederate artillery was so dire that a grave decision was made to help stave off rising casualties.

“Affix bayonets, prepare to charge!”

General Crawford’s brigade, including Niagara County’s own 28^th New York, was positioned to lead a bayonet charge across 450 yards of open field to silence the enemy’s guns.  In command of Company C of the 28^th, was Lt. William P. Warren of Lockport.   Warren and the 28^th would lead the charge in what was considered one of the most desperate bayonet charges of the war.

The 28^th emerged from the relative safety of the woods at a double-quick march.  Immediately the Confederates poured volleys of grape shot and canister into their midst.  Dead and wounded dropped as the brave men stormed forward.  Col. Dudley Donnelly, leader of the regiment fell mortally wounded along with 300 men within 1000 feet.  Lieutenant Warren soldiered on, leading his men into the woods held by the rebel artillery.  Surprised by sharpshooters lying in wait, he was shot five times; twice in the head and once each in the neck, arm and leg.  Still the company pressed on as their lieutenant was cut down.  By the end of the charge, every company officer of the 28^th was either killed or wounded.  Eventually, the Southern Army repulsed the charge and held the field leaving fallen Union troops stranded behind enemy lines.

The next morning, the armies held the same positions of the previous day.  Despite greater numbers of Confederate troops, the arrival of Federal reinforcements declared the conflict a stalemate.  The standoff between the two armies continued through the rest of Sunday before the Southerners quietly retreated.  Monday morning, Federal troops entered the battlefield to care for the wounded and bury the dead.  Among the casualties, forgotten on the field for nearly 40 hours, was Lt. Warren.

Picked up for dead, Warren was discovered to still be alive though gravely wounded.   As his wounds were considered mortal, surgeons decided not to amputate his leg.  Consequently, a story in the Lockport newspaper declared Lt. Warren killed in action.  Actually he was sent to a hospital in Culpeper, VA.   As Confederate forces closed in on Culpeper, Union troops fled the area. Left to defend themselves, the wounded, including Lt. Warren, were captured and sent to Libby Prison in Richmond. Eventually he was paroled and returned home.

The view from Union lines looking southwest.
Cedar Mountain is in the distance.

Warren resigned his commission on November 29, 1862, but later rejoined Company C of the 28^th Infantry as a full captain, mustering out with that outfit at Albany in June.  Captain Warren then reenlisted in the 2^nd NY Mounted Rifles at Buffalo in August 1863 as Captain of the Color Guard.  While serving in the Rifles, he was wounded two more times, once in the leg and once in the arm.  It is unclear whether it was the same arm or leg previously suffering injury at Cedar Mountain.  Warren was discharged as Brevet Major in October 1864.  Even though the Brevet was an honorary title with none of the authority of the full rank, William was known affectionately as Major Warren.

After the war, Warren set up in Lockport as an attorney, later moving to Dayton, Ohio where he was admitted to the National Home for Disabled Soldiers.  He left the Home in 1886, and listed his residence first in Cold Water and then in Saginaw, Michigan where he served as a US claims attorney.  William Parker Warren died of cancer on February 21, 1904 at 72 years of age.  The Lockport Union-Sun carried his obituary:

“Death yesterday accomplished what Rebel bullets could not do in 1862. In the early morning hours of February 21, at Saginaw, Michigan, the soul of William P. Warren left the body.  Captain “Billy” Warren, as he was known when he was in the gallant old 28^th was the 1^st Lt. in Co. C in the famous charge of Cedar Mountain.”

Shortly before his death, he wrote to the secretary of the 28^th Reunion: “Remember me kindly to all our old comrades. I may never meet with them again on earth’s campgrounds, but hope to meet them all in the great eternal camp where we will reunite with our great captain, who has prepared a place for all whose names are on the muster roll.”