First Civil War Soldier from Quincy to Die in Combat: Lt. Shipley

Article by Iris Nelson, October 21, 2023

“There was not a dry eye on the Square” when volunteer troops were hailed and left Quincy on April 21, 1861, for Cairo and Camp Defiance located at the tip of Illinois where the Ohio and Mississippi join together. Not knowing what lay ahead, young Quincy men patriotically responded to President Lincoln’s call for Union troops and volunteered for 90 days. The likelihood of death on the battlefield was remote from their minds as they departed for their first mission.  

One of the first to enlist was twenty-one-year-old William Shipley. Shipley had been raised since youth by leading Quincy pioneers Orville and Eliza Browning, long-time friends of Abraham Lincoln. Shipley left with 175 other men in the 10th regiment under Captain Benjamin Prentiss on that April Sunday and returned in July. German-born William came back to the community that had embraced him years earlier when he and his mother arrived from Germany. William’s father had died in Germany, and his mother sought help to raise her son. William was around six years old when he moved to the Browning home in 1845. A foster daughter, Emma Lord, joined the family in 1853. All accounts indicate a close bond between the children, and they were loved as a son and daughter.   

Lieutenant Shipley re-enlisted in August in the 27th Illinois Regiment for three years. The troops returned to Cairo. Shipley was again in camp with childhood friends preparing for war. One of those friends was Captain Schmitt, also of Company A. While there Shipley contracted an illness which kept him in the hospital for a time.  

During the fall months, Cairo regiments primarily practiced military drills. It was November before the untrained troops had their first war experience. The encounter was with a Confederate garrison at Belmont in southern Missouri located across the Mississippi River from Columbus, Kentucky. It was the first combat test for Ulysses S. Grant, who had recently taken over the new assignment at Cairo. The goal was to secure Belmont. 

Because Belmont had a small garrison, it was deemed an ideal place for the inexperienced young soldiers to get a taste of battle. Forces engaged in battle on November 7th at what became known as the Battle of Belmont.  

Newspaper records have left a detailed account of Shipley’s fate at Belmont. Shipley’s commanding officer, Colonel Napoleon Buford, wrote that Lieutenant Shipley and Captain William Schmitt, in command of Company A of the first platoon, led the way in the first advance. Shipley escaped injury early in the engagement when a musket ball struck a testament in his pocket. Later in the day, while retreating at 4 p.m. and within a mile of the boats and safety, Shipley was wounded by another musket ball that passed through his body from side to side. Wounded soldiers were left on the field until morning. Under a flag of truce at dawn, Shipley was found still lucid. During the night he had been stripped of his money, his watch and weapons. Taken aboard ship to return to Cairo around 10 a.m., Shipley was surrounded by comrades and rational to the last moments. He died just before reaching camp. One of Shipley’s friends, F. T. Moore, said, “It was a sad sight … to see Lieutenant Shipley lying on his bier still and pale, with those two wicked looking holes in his side.”

The Browning’s received the distressing word that Shipley was among the missing on November 8th. In his diary Browning expressed fear that he may have been killed. The next day he wrote that he had received news that Shipley’s body had been recovered. Word of his death had come one week after William’s 22nd birthday. Browning telegraphed instructions that William should be put in a metal coffin and sent home for interment. One of the editors of the Browning diary, Theodore Calvin Pease, wrote in the introduction that upon hearing news of William’s death “Browning mourned…as many would have mourned for a son.” These were dark hours for the Browning family. 

The coffin arrived on the train November 13th at 1 p.m., accompanied by General Prentiss and a military honor guard. The funeral took place in the Browning mansion at 7th and Hampshire at 3 p.m. The community was in mourning. Massive crowds, including William’s mother and an uncle, paid their last respects filling the house William had known as home for sixteen years. A crowd of mourners also assembled on the grounds of the mansion, the sidewalks and the street for some distance.  

During the funeral service, letters of condolence from Colonel and Mrs. Buford from Camp Defiance were read. Colonel Buford wrote to Orville Browning, and Mrs. Buford wrote to Eliza Browning. “Owing to his sickness,” said Mrs. Buford, “… I became better acquainted with him than I otherwise could have done. I persuaded him to go to the hospital, and while there I saw him nearly every day.” When troops were leaving for Columbus, Kentucky, Shipley was to remain in command of the post to assist Mrs. Buford. Mrs. Buford wrote, “I cannot express the sorrow I felt as the companies filed by my quarters and the officers saluted me. Lieutenant Shipley gave me one of his brightest, sweetest smiles as he lifted his sword. I longed to say ‘Stop, you are not to go.’” 

Following the funeral an immense convoy of carriages with military, friends, numerous home guards’ units, cadets and two companies of a Missouri cavalry participated in the very large procession to Woodland Cemetery.  

Although Quincy’s first fallen soldier happened to come from a family of prominence, Shipley, like any other common soldier, was ready to do his part. The poignant story of Lieutenant Shipley’s eagerness to volunteer, followed by his untimely death, brings to the forefront a community-felt loss.  

Although Union soldiers claimed victory at Belmont, later newspaper accounts indicated that Grant did not accomplish much in the operation. Losses were severe. Union losses totaled 607 men dead, captured or missing. The enemy lost 642 men.

Sources

“The Battle at Belmont.” Quincy Whig & Republican, November 23, 1861, 1.

“Col. Buford’s Report of the Battle of Belmont.” Quincy Whig & Republican, January 4, 1862, 

4.

“Counting Civil War Casualties Week-by-Week,” Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and

Museum, accessed August 21, 2011, 

http://www.brcweb.com/alplm/BRC_Counting_Casualties.pdf

“Death of Lieut. Shipley.” Quincy Whig & Republican, November 16, 1861, 3.

“From Cairo.” Quincy Whig & Republican, November 23, 1861, 4.

“Funeral of Lieut. Shipley.” Quincy Whig & Republican, November 4, 1861, 3.

Pease, Theodore Calvin and James G. Randall (eds.). The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, 

Volume 1, 1850-1864, Springfield, Illinois, Illinois State Historical Society, 1925. 508-

509.

“Vindication of Captain Schmitt and Lieutenant Shipley.” Quincy Whig & Republican, January 

11, 1862, 4.