William R. Simms was born in Clark County, Ohio, on August 14, 1833. He moved to the Kansas Territory in 1855, and to Harrison County, Missouri, the following year. Simms was a schoolteacher in Butler Township, Harrison County when the Civil War began.

Simms enlisted in Company E, 23rd Missouri Infantry on August 3, 1861, at Bethany, Missouri, and was mustered into service on September 22, 1861, as a first lieutenant.

Captured with the regiment at the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862, Simms was exchanged that October. Promoted to captain in December 1862, he was mustered at that rank in March 1863, and commanded Company E until he was mustered out of service at Atlanta in September 1864.

The 23rd Missouri Infantry saw service against General John S. Marmaduke and Colonel Joseph O. Shelby in Missouri in 1863, then moved to Tennessee. The regiment took an active role in the Atlanta Campaign in 1864.

Simms returned to Harrison County and served as sheriff and collector from 1866-70 and was re-elected in 1878. In 1872, he was appointed to the position of mail agent on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, and was killed when his train was thrown from the track near Edgerton, Platte County, Missouri, December 6, 1880.

Carte-de-Visite by Mansfield’s City Gallery, St. Louis.

Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 31917