Person

William E. Riley (Washington County, Kentucky, attorney and soldier.)

b. 1821-10-20 d. 1886-07-28

Washington County, Kentucky, attorney and soldier. Kentucky native. Married to Elizabeth Ann Ewing Riley in Washington County, Kentucky, on April 20, 1846. Father of Mary E. Riley, James Riley, John Riley, Sarah Riley, Ann Riley, and Elizabeth Riley. Graduated from Bacon College in Scott County, Kentucky, in 1841. Attorney in Washington County, Kentucky, in 1850. Owned one enslaved person in Washington County in 1850. Attorney in Washington County in 1860. Owned ten enslaved persons in Washington County in 1860. Provost marshal in Mercer County in 1862. Served in the 11th Kentucky Volunteer Cavalry Regiment (U.S.A.) as a lieutenant colonel from November 10, 1862, to July 18, 1865.

Details

Sex
Male
Race
White

Bibliography

Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Washington County, p. 234B.

Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Washington County, p. 558.

Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Washington County, Springfield, p. 228.

Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Washington County, Springfield, p. 19A.

Kentucky Marriage Records, Madison County Courthouse, Richmond, Kentucky, Washington County Marriages, Film 000241382, p. 38.

Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers Who Served in Organizations From the State of Kentucky, NARA RG 94, Microfilm Series M397, Roll 111.

Catalogue of Kentucky University, Lexington, Kentucky, 1891-1892: Organized as Bacon College A.D. 1836 (Lexington, KY: Will S. Marshall Printing Co.), 15.

Anne E. Marshall, Creating A Confederate Kentucky: The Lost Cause and Civil War Memory in Border State, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010), p. 32-33.

"William E. Riley (1831-1886)," Find A Grave, Memorial 162568249, accessed June 5, 2023, http://www.findagrave.com/memorial/162568249.

Citation

Riley, William E.. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, https://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/S32209982 (November 12, 2026).

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