Col. O. M. Roberts, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 12.1, Alabama
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

Brigadier-General William Henry Forney, brother of Gen. John H. Forney, was born at Lincolnton, N. C., November 9, 1823. In 1835 he went with his parents to Calhoun county, Ala. Here he received his elementary education, and then entered the university of Alabama, where he was graduated in 1844. He was studying law with his brother, D. P. Forney, in Jacksonville, when youthful and patriotic zeal impelled him to go to the Mexican war in Coffee's First Alabama regiment of volunteers. In this command he was lieutenant, and was engaged in the siege of Vera Cruz. At the expiration of his term of service he resumed his studies, this time in the law office of Hon. T. A. Walker. In 1848 he was admitted to the bar and formed a partnership with Gen. Jas. B. Martin. In 1859 he was a representative in the Alabama legislature from Calhoun county. Upon the secession of Alabama he once more laid aside his professional work and entered the service as captain in the regiment (Tenth Alabama) of which his brother John was colonel. At Dranesville he was wounded in the leg, but within two months he was back in the field, having meanwhile been commissioned major of his regiment, December 21, 1861. On March 17, 1862, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel. At Williamsburg he was wounded in the shoulder by a ball, which broke the bone of his right arm. At William and Mary college, one of Virginia's venerable institutions of learning, then converted into a hospital for wounded soldiers, he was captured by the enemy on their occupation of Williamsburg. After four months of captivity he was exchanged, and returned to his command to find that on June 27th he had been promoted to colonel of his regiment, upon the death