Lowndes County AlArchives Biographies.....Kirkpatrick, William Laird February 
28, 1848 – September 21, 1923
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Carolyn Golowka http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00012.html#0002972 
February 1, 2005, 3:00 pm


Source:  Confederate Veteran Vol. XXXII (1924)


GEN. W. L. KIRKPATRICK, OF ALABAMA
(NOTE:  William L. Kirkpatrick was NOT a general in the CSA but only in the UCV 
after the war)

by Alice Clapp Barrington

Among those who have "Crossed the Bar" since the annual reunion of 1923 no one 
will be more missed than Gen. W. L. Kirkpatrick, Commander of the 2nd Brigade of 
Alabama, U.C.V., a man whom to know was to admire and esteem for his may fine 
and beautiful traits of character, a man of the highest integrity and noblest 
impulses.  Tender in his home, loyal toward his friendships, unselfish, and 
generous, his rare nature was a combination of all the elements of fine 
Christian manhood.

On the evening of September 21, 1923, after an illness of some months, his 
spirit winged its flight to the "golden shores of eternity."  In returning from 
the U.C. V. reunion at New Orleans, he had spent several weeks at his beautiful 
plantation home at Hazen, Ala. And later, with his wife and daughter, went to 
his summer home at Point Clear on Mobile Bay, where he contracted an illness, 
returning later to Selma and to his own physician.  He did not rally, however, 
and after some weeks of suffering he quietly "went to sleep," leaving a vacancy 
in his home and in the community where he stood for only what was highest and 
best.  In his death the United Confederate Veterans lost a warm, true, and 
devoted friend, whose interest and enthusiasm in the cause of the Confederacy 
never wavered.

General Kirkpatrick was the youngest of a large family of brothers.  He was the 
son of Laird and Nancy Callen Kirkpatrick, and of pure Scotch descent, of which 
he was justly proud.  HE was born at Fort Deposit, Ala., on February 28, 1848, 
but when quite young he made his home with an uncle, Samuel Kirkpatrick, at 
Cahaba, Ala.  There he grew to manhood, later locating at Hazen, where he had 
large mercantile and farming interests.  He married in 1869 and is survived by 
his wife and two daughters – Mrs. Joseph Knight, of Selma, and Mrs. George 
Stone, of Mobile.  During the War between the States W. L. Kirkpatrick was a 
member of Company B., Field's Battalion, from Tuscaloosa.  He served throughout 
the war, winning recognition for his many splendid, manly acts of bravery and 
daring.  At the close of the war he returned to Hazen, and, like other 
unconquerable souls of that time, he took up the burden of rebuilding his 
business even amid the very ashes left in the wake of the invading army.

Too noble and Christianlike to live for himself alone, General Kirkpatrick began 
to take a material interest in his fellow men, in the community, and this 
interest made itself felt in the gradual uplift and happiness of those about 
him.  His interest in all that pertained to the cause of the Confederacy was 
always alert, and the finest enthusiasm marked his activities as a member of the 
staff of the 2nd Brigade of Alabama.  At the reunion in New Orleans he was 
unanimously chosen to command this part of the State Division, having been in 
command by special appointment on the death of its commander. He had been 
enthusiastic in carrying out all plans in a splendid way that gave the 2nd 
Brigade prominence during the reunion.

General Kirkpatrick was a member of the Episcopal Church, a Mason, and a Knight 
of Pythias, and these organizations, with the Confederate veterans of Selma and 
Montgomery, paid beautiful and touching tribute to him when the last rites were 
held at Live Oak Cemetery in Selma.