William Lewis Hickman, adjutant of the 11th Kentucky Cavalry, was born in
Winchester, Ky., in 1824, the son of
William L. Hickman and
Sarah Pearson, his wife, both of whom were born in
Virginia.
He was the grandson of
Richard Hickman, who was
Governor of
Kentucky during the war of 1812.
Through his mother he was American ‘Rebel,’ the leader of what is called ‘
Bacon's Rebellion,’ in
Virginia in 1676. ‘Billy’
Hickman, as his friends fondly called him, was educated in the
Winchester schools, and went into the mercantile business there at an early age. In 1847 he was partner with
Henry Bell in a mercantile house in
Lexington.
A few years later he went to
St. Louis.
He was the founder of the
Lodge of Odd Fellows in
Winchester, which is called Hickman Lodge, in his honer.
When the war began he was in
St. Louis, and enlisted in a body of Confederate troops that was raised there, but he was captured by
General Seigle, and imprisoned.
He escaped from prison and made his way to his home in
Winchester, where he was again arrested, and paced in prison in
Lexington, but escaped from that prison also.
When the 11th Kentucky Cavalry was recruited he joined it, and was made adjutant, with the rank of captain, and served gallantly until his capture on the
Ohio raid, after which he was imprisoned in the
Ohio penitentiary,
Johnson's Island,
Allegheny penitentiary,
Pa., and
Point Lookout, Md., remaining a prisoner until the close of the war, when he was released, reaching there on May I, 1865.
About 1875 he left
Winchester for the
West, and has never been heard of since.
No man ever had more friends, or more devoted ones, than he.
