History of the 85th Illinois Volunteers
Illinois Volunteer Infantry
by
Henry J. Aten
1901
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Pages 433 - 449

CAPTAIN WILLIAM McCLELLAND, aged thirty-eight, born in Jefferson county, Ohio, but for many years had been residing on a farm near Astoria, Ill. He was active in recruiting the company and at its organization was elected captain. He commanded the company through the Kentucky campaign, and at the battle of Perryville, Ky., his actions proved that he was not lacking in courage. But the hardships of the campaign which ended at Nashville, Tenn., undermined his health, and he resigned his commission on December 21, 1862. He returned to his farm near Astoria, Ill., where he died November 24, 1889, his death resulting from injuries received from falling down stairs.

So many of the young men from the south part of Fulton county had entered the army in 1861 that few were so sanguine as to expect that more than one company could be raised in and around Astoria when recruiting began in the summer of 1862. But by the middle of August enough had enlisted to form two full companies.

Company G was enrolled by the Hon. S. P. Cummings between the 11th and 16th of August, the nucleus of the company being the overflow form Company H, it having been the first organized. At the organization of the company the following commissioned officers were elected: William McClelland, captain; Lafayette Curless, first lieutenant, and John M. Robertson, second lieutenant.

The record shows that 20 of the officers and men belonging to his company were hit with shot or shell in battle, 8 of who were killed, 1 died of wounds, while 11 received wounds which did not prove fatal while in the service, 9 died of disease, 11 were discharged fro disability, 16 were transferred and 36 went home together when the regiment was disbanded.

The company was commanded by officers who were brave and enterprising, and, for genuine loyalty and devotion to duty, Company G was the peer of any organization in the service. While the writer feels that his heart is big enough to take in the whole of the Eighty-fifth, there will always be a warm corner reserved for the "boys of Company G".