Messenger, William F.

William Messenger

NPS Photo

Quick Facts

Significance:

Company A, 13th Ohio Infantry

Place of Birth:

Ohio

Date of Birth:

1829

Place of Death:

Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Date of Death:

February 2, 1863

Place of Burial:

Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Cemetery Name:

Stones River National Cemetery

William F. Messenger was born in 1829, likely in Ohio. On March 5, 1861, at the age of 32, he married Mary Thornburg while living in Morrow County, Ohio. On June 4, 1861, just four months after getting married, William enlisted with the Union Army. He earned the rank of corporal. 

Messenger mustered in as a corporal in Company A, 13th Ohio Infantry at Camp Dennison, Ohio on June 26, 1861. The 13th Ohio first served in western Virginia engaging the enemy several times, including the Battle of Carnifex Ferry on September 10, 1861. In November 1861, William and his regiment joined the Army of the Ohio as they moved to occupy Kentucky.  

Corporal Messenger and his comrades arrived in Nashville, Tennessee, on February 26, 1862. Their train ride paused in Gallatin where the regiment assisted in repairing the bridge across the Cumberland River.

In 1862, William and the 13th Ohio fought the enemy in multiple battles, including Shiloh (Tennessee), the Siege of Corinth (Mississippi), and the Battle of Perryville (Kentucky). The regiment returned to Nashville and began their last campaign of 1862 on December 26. William and his regiment arrived in Murfreesboro on December 29 and were positioned as reserves on the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad. On December 31, the 13th Ohio, attached to Van Cleve’s division, Fyffe’s brigade, prepared to cross the Stones River at McFadden’s Ford as part of Gen. William S. Rosecrans’ planned flanking movement. 

An early morning Confederate attack crushed the Army of the Cumberland’s Right Wing, forcing a change of plan. The attack across the river was cancelled. Corporal Messenger joined his regiment as they rushed to protect their army’s lifeline back to Nashville. They formed a line along Asbury Lane and fought fiercely against Confederates commanded by Gen. Patrick Cleburne for nearly four hours. 

Following that deadly first day of fighting, William and the 13th Ohio were soon thrust again into the fighting on January 2, 1863. The final Confederate charge drove the men of Van Cleve’s division from the hill they occupied on the east bank of the river. Following a deadly artillery barrage, Union forces pushed back and regained the high ground.

Corporal Messenger survived one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War at Stones River only to be struck down by the conflict’s greatest killer. He succumbed to illness on February 2, 1863, just one month after that final fight along the banks of the Stones River. 

Corporal William Messenger is laid to rest in the Stones River National Cemetery in plot D-1586. He is also listed under the last name “Hessenger.” 

Tags: stones river national battlefield, stones river national cemetery, american civil war