William H. Shelly

William H. Shelly was born in 1840.

He may have been the same William H. Shelly from Madison County, Indiana who enlisted on April 22, 1861 in Company E, Eighth Indiana infantry, as a private and who was mustered out on August 6, 1861 at Indianapolis, Indiana. (This was a 90-day enlistment with no apparent reenlistment in an Indiana regiment.)

In any event, William stood 5’10” with blue eyes, brown hair and a florid complexion and was a 24-year-old farmer possibly living in Manistee, Manistee County, Michigan, when he enlisted in Company I on February 6, 1864, at Grand Rapids for 3 years, crediting Manistee, and was mustered the same day. He joined the Regiment on February 17 at Camp Bullock, Virginia, and was reported absent sick in May.

In fact, he was wounded at either the Wilderness or Spotsylvania, Virginia in early May, which eventually resulted in the amputation of the limb. He was reported absent wounded when he was transferred to Company I, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864.

William remained absent wounded until he was discharged on May 7, 1865, at Judiciary Square hospital in Washington, DC.

The week after he was discharged from the army William applied for and received a pension (no. 45260).

In 1870 there was a 30-year-old school-teacher named William Shelley, (b. in Pennsylvania as was Anson Shelly), with some $3800 worth of personal property, living with the Rev. David Cooper, a Presbyterian minister and his family in Albion, Calhoun County.