William B. Wiley

William B. Wiley was born in 1841 in Penobscot County, Maine.

William may have been living in Sparta, Kent County in 1860.

In any case William stood 5’7” with hazel eyes, brown hair and a light complexion and was 20 years old and probably still living in Kent County when he enlisted with the consent of the Justice of the Peace in Company K on May 13, 1861. William was reported as a provost guard in July of 1862, a provost guard at Brigade headquarters from August through November, and absent sick in the hospital from December of 1862 through March of 1863. He was serving with the ambulance corps in April and May, at Regimental headquarters in June and July, and in August he was a servant to Colonel Byron Pierce then commanding the Third Michigan.

On December 24, 1863, William reenlisted at Brandy Station, Virginia, crediting Plainfield, Kent County, was presumably absent on veteran’s furlough in January of 1864, and probably returned to the Regiment on or about the first of February. In May of 1864 he was on detached service, and he was still on detached service at Division headquarters when he was transferred to Company I, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864. He was absent sick in Hoover hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from July through October, returned to duty on October 25, 1864, and was absent sick in March of 1865. He was mustered out on July 5, 1865, at Jeffersonville, Indiana.

(In 1870 there was a William Wiley living in Grand Rapids’ Second Ward. And in 1890 there was a William E. Wiley who had served in the Nineteenth Illinois infantry living in Grand Rapids and in Grand Rapids’ Seventh Ward by 1894.)

No pension seems to be available.