Friday, December 6, 2013

William Caswell Drake, student 1850-1851

Drake, a farmer in Warren County, NC, organized Company B of the 30th NC Infantry and became its captain on August 16, 1861. Drake was hospitalized in Richmond, VA in October 1862 with chronic hepatitis. While camped near Port Royal, VA on December 10, 1862, he submitted a letter of resignation backed by a surgeon's certificate of disability citing ill health, which was accepted on January 5, 1863. In his letter he indicated a willingness to serve in a local position, and he later served as major in the home guard. A November 16, 1864 article in the Raleigh, NC newspaper, the North Carolina Standard, states that "the following named field and staff officers will repair to Goldsboro and report to Brigadier General Leventhorpe for duty with the 2nd Class of Guards for Home Defense," and lists Major W. C. Drake of Warren among them.

After the war, he returned to farming in Warren County, NC. He was an educator and served as Justice of the Peace. Drake died on May 6, 1907 and is buried in the Fitts Family Cemetery at Oakville in Warren County, NC.

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