Bertie County NcArchives Biographies.....Hoggard/White, William Thomas 1842 - 1917
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Gerald Thomas gerald_thomas00@comcast.net  March 26, 2013, 8:36 pm

Source: Misc. records
Author: Gerald Thomas

WILLIAM THOMAS HOGGARD
	(ALIAS WILLIAM WHITE)
By
Gerald W. Thomas

	William Thomas Hoggard, son of David Hoggard, Sr. and Sarah "Sallie" Mizell
Hoggard, was born in Bertie County, North Carolina, on July 14, 1842.# William –
most commonly known as Thomas or Tom – grew up on his parent's farm located
about ten miles northeast of Windsor near the present day community of Todd's
Crossroads. As a boy, William assisted his father in "working the land" as
typical farm lads did during the nineteenth century. However, in the fall of
1860 – after reaching the age of 18 – William suddenly and without fore notice
left the family farm and Bertie County. Family members did not see nor hear from
him again for over forty-five years.
	The last family member to see William before he left was his older brother,
Timothy. Timothy had married Cary Castellow by this time and had moved out of
his father's household. In September 1906, Timothy, then 82 years old, stated
that "I was the last one who saw him before he went off. He came to my house and
got dinner and said that he was going to Windsor. That was the last seen of him
until this spring. I knew nothing of him from the time he left here until he got
back [in 1906]."
	One unsubstantiated account regarding William's sudden disappearance from
Bertie County conveys that he became embroiled in a violent altercation with
another man (apparently in Windsor) and thought he had killed the person.
William, frightened at the prospect of being arrested and jailed, purportedly
fled from the county.
	When the Civil War erupted in April 1861, William was residing in Washington,
Beaufort County, North Carolina. Early in the war a company of Confederate
infantry was organized at Washington and on May 31, 1861, William enlisted as a
private in that unit. The company, known as the "Southern Guards," tendered its
service to the state on June 3, 1861, and was ordered to Camp Hill, near
Garysburg, Northampton County. There, it was assigned to the Fourth Regiment
North Carolina State Troops and designated as Company E. 
	The Fourth North Carolina was ordered to Richmond, Virginia on July 20, 1861.
In August the regiment was assigned to the Confederate garrison at Manassas
Junction, Virginia. In March 1862 the regiment was assigned to a special brigade
organized under the command of Brig. Gen. Charles S. Winder at Clark's Mountain
near Orange Court House. Winder's brigade was in turn assigned to Maj. Gen.
Daniel Harvey Hill's division.
	While serving with the Fourth North Carolina, Private Hoggard experienced
desperate and ferocious combat. At Seven Pines, Virginia, on May 31, 1862, the
Fourth North Carolina, as part of Hill's division, participated in an attack
against strongly fortified Federal positions on the Williamsburg Road. The
Federals stymied the Southern assault during which Private Hoggard was wounded.
The nature of his wound is not revealed in extant military records. However, the
wound does not appear to have been severe in that he was not hospitalized.
Hoggard's regiment suffered over fifty percent casualties in the day's fighting
– 369 men killed, wounded, and missing out of 678 who went into action.
	In early June the Fourth North Carolina was assigned to a newly formed brigade
commanded by recently promoted Brig. Gen. George B. Anderson. The regiment
participated in the engagement at Mechanicsville, Virginia on June 26, 1862.
Following the battles around Richmond, Gen. Robert E. Lee moved his Army of
Northern Virginia across the Potomac River into Maryland in September 1862. The
Fourth North Carolina, as part Anderson's brigade, Hill's division, saw heavy
action at South Mountain on September 14. At Antietam on September 17, 1862,
Lee's army clashed with Gen. George B. McClellan's Federal army in the bloodiest
single-day battle of the war. Anderson's brigade was stationed in the sunken
road, later called Bloody Lane, and suffered appalling casualties until forced
to withdraw by relentless Federal assaults. The Fourth North Carolina lost all
of its officers in the fighting and withdrew under the command of a sergeant.
Fortunately, Private Hoggard – in the thick of the fighting – was not harmed.
Lee's and McClellan's forces battled to a tactical draw at Antietam, although
for the North it was a strategic victory in that it stopped Lee's invasion
across the Potomac River.
	Lee withdrew back across the Potomac after the battle. At Fredericksburg on
December 13, Hill's division was placed in a defensive line and endured heavy
artillery fire. However, it saw little action. After the battle of
Fredericksburg, Lee's army went into winter quarters near the town. 
	After being wounded at Seven Pines, and witnessing and participating in the
massive carnage in the "Bloody Lane" at Antietam, Private Hoggard must have
surmised that his "luck" could not continue to hold out in vicious combat. In
early May 1863, General Lee launched a spring offensive against the Federal
army. The two forces clashed at Chancellorsville on May 1. On the third day of
the battle, Pvt. William T. Hoggard, having apparently endured all the combat he
could, deserted from his regiment and gave himself up to Union troops near
Louisa Court House. Private Hoggard, regarded initially as a prisoner of war by
Federal authorities, was transported to the Old Capitol Prison in Washington,
D.C. where on May 25 he expressed the desire to take the Oath of Allegiance to
the United States. On June 7 he was transferred to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
where he took the Oath of Allegiance to the United States the next day.
	William remained in Philadelphia for the next six months seeking work as a
"common laborer." On December 30, 1863, he enlisted as a substitute for A. Tiers
in Company H of the 104th Regiment Pennsylvania Infantry. Private Hoggard, like
a substantial number of other Southerners, would have the distinction of serving
in both the Confederate and Federal armies. However, he apparently tried to
conceal his Southern nativity from Federal army officers his enlistment document
states that he was born in Illinois – a falsification.
	Fellow soldiers who served with William recalled that he was very athletic and
was one of the "best runners and jumpers in the company." They also recalled
that Tom Hoggard, as he was known to them, was a jolly and happy fellow but that
he never talked of his family or where he was from, nor did he ever write any
letters. (William was illiterate – he signed the Oath of Allegiance and his
enlistment paper with "Xs." However, he apparently never asked any of his
comrades to write letters for him to his family or friends back home in Bertie
County.) Few of his fellow soldiers knew that he was a Southerner.
	Private Hoggard served with the 104th Pennsylvania Regiment throughout the
remainder of the war. During his service in the Federal army he participated in
siege operations about Charleston, South Carolina in 1864. With the transfer of
his regiment to Virginia during the summer of 1864, Private Hoggard performed
garrison and fatigue duty along the Potomac River near Alexandria, Virginia and
helped escort wagon trains in Virginia and West Virginia. On November 22, the
104th Pennsylvania was transferred to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's army and was
assigned to the siege lines about Petersburg. There, Private Hoggard and the
rest of his regimental comrades spent the winter, enduring the hardships
incident to the siege. On April 3 and 4, 1865, the regiment participated in the
Federal assault on the Confederate defenses about Petersburg, helping compel
General Lee's withdrawal that led to the Confederate surrender at Appomattox
Court House on April 9.
	On April 20, the 104th Pennsylvania was ordered to Fort Monroe, Virginia, where
it spent four days until transferred to Norfolk. Private Hoggard and the other
members of the regiment were mustered out of service on August 25, 1865, at
Portsmouth, Virginia.
	Although Portsmouth is only about one hundred miles from Bertie County, William
did not return home after he was mustered out of service. It is unclear exactly
where he went, but from his personal testimonies in 1906 and 1907 for the
purpose of obtaining a Federal pension based on his Union military service, he
stated that he had lived in the following locations: New Jersey (six months);
Galveston, Texas (eight months); Little River, Arkansas (thirteen months);
Macon, Georgia (thirteen years); Atlanta, Georgia (seven years); Columbia, South
Carolina (four years); Charleston, South Carolina (eighteen months); and
Montgomery, Alabama (six years).
	The validity of these residences is questionable. In a pension affidavit dated
June 7, 1912, William listed the following residences subsequent to his army
discharge: Galveston, Texas (three years); Deninburg, South Carolina (two
years); Macon, Georgia ("some" thirty years); Florida (about two years); and
Salem, New Jersey (about eight months).
	Sometime after William was mustered out of the Pennsylvania infantry, he
changed his name to William White. It is not known why he changed his name, but
obviously he was attempting to conceal his true identity. On March 4, 1880,
William T. Hoggard, going by the name of William White, married Emma J. Brooks
in Clinton, Jones County, Georgia.
	Emma was not aware that her husband's real name was Hoggard. William and Emma
lived together for 26 years and had five children, all of whom went by the name
of White. In 1900 William and Emma were living in Macon, Georgia with their five
children: Sally, age 19; Genie, age 17; Willie J., age 16; Charles B., age 11;
and Logan, age 6.
	Obviously, a number of mysteries surround William T. Hoggard and his life. In
April 1906, William suddenly and unannounced – just as he had done in 1860 –
left his family in Georgia and returned to Bertie County. He was now almost 64
years old. Immediately upon returning to Bertie, he applied for a Federal
pension based on his Union military service. However, William, who clearly had a
propensity to lie to cover his movements and actions, fabricated several items
on the pension application. He stated under oath in July 1906 that he had never
served in the Confederate military service, that he had lived in Salem, New
Jersey from 1858 until he enlisted in the Union army, and that he had never been
married.
	In December 1907, a special investigator for the Bureau of Pensions visited
Bertie County and interviewed William. The investigator later filed the
following statement in his report.

Before I began Mr. Hoggard's statement I gave him a good straight talk and told
him that the Government wanted no more fairy tales . . . All that part of his
former statement about going North before the Civil War is a fabrication pure
and simple. This man lived at his old home in Bertie County, North Carolina,
till a few months before the Civil War commenced and then went to Washington,
North Carolina where he remained till he joined Co. E, 4 N.C Inf., C.S.A. He now
admits serving in the regiment and says he was there till the Confederates got
ready to make a great assault at Chancellorsville when he slipped out and joined
the Federal army, but did not enlist till sometime later . . . The testimony of
Sgt. C. E. Perry, E, 4 N.C. Inf., C.S.A. shows conclusively that [the] soldier
did serve in that organization. Sgt. Perry said he disappeared and it was
believed that he had deserted about the Spring of 1863. Sgt. Perry described the
man perfectly regarding his nose. He has an enormous nose and it is hawk bill in
shape just as stated by Mr. Perry."

	The Federal government granted William a Civil War pension in 1912, although he
never did divulge that he was married and that he was the father of five
children. He received monthly payments until he died in Bertie County on
February 25, 1917. He was seventy-four years old when he passed away. William
was buried on the Elisha Hoggard "home place" near Todd's Crossroads.
	In 1935, William's widow, Emma White, applied for a widow's pension based on
her husband's military service. At that time she was 81 years old. Both she and
her son, Logan M. White, testified in sworn affidavits in Haywood County, North
Carolina on June 18, 1935, that William had always gone by the name of White.
They stated that they learned for the first time in 1908 – when William returned
to them in Georgia after living in Bertie County for two years – that his real
name was William T. Hoggard. Logan testified that he visited Bertie County in
1912 and learned that all of his father's relatives were Hoggards and that his
father advised him that he had changed his name to White and was drawing a
pension as a Civil War veteran. Both Emma and her son stated in their affidavits
that she and William lived together until his death in 1917. However, the
statement is not true; after a short visit back to Georgia, William returned to
Bertie County where, as conveyed above, he died.
	Emma White unfortunately waited 18 years before applying for a widow's pension.
When questioned by a Veterans Administration agent concerning why she waited so
long, she stated, "this affiant did not apply for this pension earlier for that
she had been advised by some of her friends that she would be unable to get it
by reason of the change of the veteran's name; and that recently she had been
advised by counsel that it would be immaterial if William White was the same man
as William T. Hoggard." Her application for pension was submitted on May 21,
1935, and approved on June 10, 1935. She received a retroactive award back to
January 1935 and continued to receive the payments until her death. She died on
October 15, 1938, in Canton, Haywood County, North Carolina.


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