Draft:William W. McCarty

William Washington McCarty (March 18, 1817 – June 5, 1889) of McConnelsville, Ohio was a captain in Company E of the 78th Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry in the American Civil War. He enlisted as a 1st lieutenant and was promoted to captain on 14 February 1863; he served from 23 December 1861 to 25 May 1865. His experiences as a prisoner of war as chronicled in his essay, History of Prison Life, and Southern Prisons, which appears in the regimental history, is extremely insightful about race relations in the South at that time, and the reaction of slaves to the presence of Union troops. Whenever the escapees found a black not accompanied by any whites, they would approach them and identify themselves as Yankee POWs. They would then be given shelter, food and otherwise helped along their journey. This narrative could be termed a "a "reverse underground railroad." McCarty in his essay cites several examples of how he and his colleagues were aided by blacks in this manner during their escape from Camp Sorghum in Columbia, South Carolina. The essay is in the form of two letters sent to Chaplain Thomas M. Stevenson, the author of the regimental history.

Add information here about McCarty from the Morgan County history.

McCarty was born 18 March 1817, in Loudon County, Virginia. Shortly thereafter, his family moved to Morgan County, Ohio. He was a partner with James Adair in publishing the Morgan County Herald and served several consecutive terms as Justice of the Peace. After the war, he served as mayor of McConnelsville. He died in 1889.