William Henry Evans

William Henry Evans (November 3, 1842 – January 5, 1923) was an American lawyer and farmer from Yankeetown, Wisconsin who spent a single one-year term as a Liberal Reform Party member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from Crawford County. Although a native of Virginia, he fought as a Union Army soldier in the American Civil War. Background Evans was born in Petersburg, Virginia on November 3, 1842, son of Joseph and Mary (Hall) Evans. His father was a mechanic, and moved the family to several cities in the south and west in search of work. William received a common school education. He had lived at one time or another in Philadelphis, New Orleans, Natchez, Mississippi, and Cincinnati, before coming to Wisconsin in 1860 and settling in Yankeetown. Civil War and after Evans enlisted as a private in Company 'D' of the 31st Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment August 15 of 1862. He suffered a gunshot wound on the skirmish line outside Atlanta on July 30, 1864, and was sent to a hospital in Nashville. Evans was assigned as a mounted courier for the provost marshal's office in December, and remained in that post until May, 1865, when he was relieved and sent home to be discharged (Company 'D' was mustered out on June 20, 1865). Back home in Wisconsin, he farmed while reading the law, got married, and was admitted to the bar in the Wisconsin Circuit Court at Prairie du Chien in May 1873.