William R. Terrill
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William Rufus Terrill (April 21, 1834 – October 8, 1862) was a United States Army soldier and general who was killed in action at the Battle of Perryville during the American Civil War. His brother was also killed during the same war, making the Terrills one of the few sets of American brothers killed in action while commanding brigades. Ironically, they were on opposite sides in the conflict.
Terrill was born in Covington, Virginia. He became a cadet at West Point in 1849 and graduated in 1853. While a cadet, he was involved in a fist-fight with fellow classmate Philip H. Sheridan. The encounter caused a one-year suspension for Sheridan from the academy. Terrill after graduation was assigned to the 3rd U.S. Artillery and served on various garrisons. He returned to West Point as was assistant professor of mathematics from 1853–54, before being assigned to duty in "Bleeding Kansas" from 1854–55. He was then an assistant in the United States coast survey from 1855 until 1861.
After the outbreak of the Civil War, Terrill was commissioned a captain in the 5th U.S. Artillery in August 1861. His younger brother James B. Terrill was commissioned a Major of Virginia Infantry and served in the Confederate States Army. During the first year of the war. Their father, Col. William Henry Terrill, a lawyer, served the Confederate States as the provost marshal of Bath County, Virginia.
William Terrill served as assistant inspector general in Washington, D.C., and then commanded a brigade of artillery in the Army of the Ohio at the Battle of Shiloh. On September 9, 1862 he was appointed as a brigadier general of U.S. volunteers and took commanded of the 33rd Brigade in the Army of the Ohio. He led his inexperienced fresh troops into their first combat action at the Battle of Perryville. There, he was mortally wounded by a shell fragment while trying to rally his brigade in the face of a Confederate attack, and died later that day. The previous night, Generals Terrill and James S. Jackson and Colonel George Webster were discussing the improbability of being killed in action. All three would be killed in the following battle.
In 1864 during the Overland Campaign, Terrill's brother James, by then commanding a brigade, was killed in action at the Battle of Bethesda Church and buried on the battlefield. He was posthumously promoted to brigadier general. Another younger brother, Philip Mallory Terrill of the 12th Virginia Cavalry, was killed near Winchester, Virginia, in November 1864. The fourth brother, Dr. George P. Terrill, a Confederate militia commander, survived the Civil War. Their grieving father later erected a memorial stone, which reads "This monument erected by their father. God Alone Knows Which Was Right."
William R. Terrill was laid to rest at West Point National Cemetery.
