From: Confederate Military History Extended Edition.  Edited by Gen. 
Clement A. Evans of Georgia.  Wilmington, NC. Broadfoot Publishing 
Company, 1987; pages 142-144.

ADDITIONAL SKETCHES ILLUSTRATING THE SERVICES OF OFFICERS AND 
PRIVATES AND PATRIOTIC CITIZENS OF WESTERN VIRGINIA.

*COLONEL WILLIAM WILEY ARNETT*

Colonel William Wiley Arnett, a distinguished jurist of Wheeling,
W. Va., was born in Marion county, October 23, 1843, the son of
Ulysses N. Arnett, who resided many years on the Monongahela
river and served in the Virginia and West Virginia legislatures
and in the constitutional convention of 1872. At the age of
sixteen years he entered Allegheny college at Meadville, Pa.,
where he was graduated in 1860.  He then studied law under
Judge A. F. Hammond, and was admitted to the bar, but closed 
his office in April, 1861, to enlist as a private in Company A of the 
Thirty-first Virginia regiment of infantry. After three months' 
service in this capacity he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel by 
Governor Letcher, and put in command of a battalion of seven 
companies, afterward known as the Twenty-fifth Virginia infantry. 
About three months later he was given command of the Twenty-third 
regiment, but resigned this commission and re-enlisted in the Thirty-
first regiment as a private. In December, 1861, he was elected 
captain of Company A, and subsequently he was transferred to the 
Twentieth Virginia cavalry, with the rank of colonel, in which 
command he served until the close of the war. During his military 
career, which was distinguished by soldierly devotion and skill as a 
commander, he participated in a large number of engagements, and was 
wounded at Cross Keys and Bristoe Station. He was in the fight at 
Camp Bartow, on Greenbrier river, West Virginia, in (October, 1861; 
went through Stonewall Jackson's campaign in the Shenandoah valley in 
the spring of 1862, and continued under Jackson's command through the 
Manassas and Maryland campaigns of that year, participating in the 
battles at McDowell's, Winchester, Cross Keys, Port Republic, Gaines' 
Mill, Frayser's Farm, Malvern Hill, Cold Harbor, Slaughter's 
Mountain, Second Manassas, Chantilly, Harper's Ferry, and Sharpsburg. 
After this arduous service in the infantry he took command of the 
Twentieth cavalry regiment, W. L. Jackson's brigade, and was 
distinguished at Droop Mountain and Covington. With the army under 
General Early in the Shenandoah valley he fought in several noted 
engagements, including Winchester and Fisher's Hill, and later in the 
year he was on detached duty on the western line of operations in 
Virginia, in command of his regiment, until March 1, 1865, when he 
marched to the relief of General Early at Staunton, and then moved to 
Lynchburg and pursued Sheridan to Ashland, skirmishing and harassing 
the Federal troops on their withdrawal. Returning to the protection 
of Staunton, he remained there until the close of the war, being 
paroled in May, 1865. On account of the test oath then in force in 
West Virginia he did not return there immediately after the war, but 
practiced law at Berryville, Va., until 1872, and from that time 
until 1875 at St. Louis, Mo., where he attracted attention as a 
successful criminal lawyer in several noted cases. Since 1875 he has 
resided at Wheeling, and has been engaged in a large number of famous 
legal contests, including the litigation attending the removal of the 
State capital. He is regarded as one of the leading lawyers of the 
State. In 1862 he was elected to the legislature while on duty in the 
army, but did not serve. After the war he served two terms as the 
representative of Clark county in the Virginia legislature, and in 
1896 he was nominated for Congress from the First West Virginia 
district. In this contest, though not elected, he reduced the adverse 
Republican Majority Over 2,000 Votes.
 

(Linda Fluharty)