Biography of William C. Yarnall of Miami Co., Indiana.

WILLIAM C. YARNALL, native of Harrison County, Ohio, was born September 6, 1841, the sixth child of William and Sarah (Spencer) Yarnall, natives of Ohio, who removed to Indiana in 1861, and located on a farm in Martin County, where they resided during the rest of their lives, his father having died in August 16, 1875. The mother is still living.

In his twentieth year he volunteered his services to his country, enlisted in the Sixty-fifth Indiana Volunteer Regiment of Infantry in August, 1862, and continued in that service for three years or until the close of the war. He entered as a private, and mustered in at Evansville, Indiana, and took his departure for the South, where he landed on the Southern soil at Henderson, Kentucky, and participated in the following engagements with the enemy of the Union:

At Madison, Kentucky, he took his first hand in a skirmish with the Gray Coats, and the first engagement of note in which he took part was at Murfreesboro, Tennessee. This experience was varied by several minor engagements, including Bowling Green, until 1863. The army crossed through the Cumberland Gap, and were the first Union troops that set foot in Knoxville, Tennessee, where considerable scouting was indulged in for some time, and then the celebrated battle of Mission Ridge was placed on the list of our subject's engagements, and from there the regiment proceeded to the siege of Knoxville, where they arrived a short time before the departure of the enemy. They then received a call from headquarters to report at Tunnell Hill, Georgia, to assist General Sherman in his celebrated campaign, and participated in the Buzzard Roost engagement, which was soon followed by the conflict at Resaca, and after numerous small encounters they next were in front at the battle of Kenesaw Mountain.

After this series of engagements a call was issued by General Sherman for a true and tried "orderly," and for heroic services and past bravery our subject was chosen for that position, he having made a record that warranted the appointment. In this position he was retained throughout all the engagements of the war, being in company with the noted general, and doing his errands until the good news came that "Peace was restored." He was exceptionally prompt and ever ready to do his duty, always at his post and never absent on account of sickness or disability. Mustered out at Greensborough, North Carolina, and was honorably discharged at Indianapolis.

After the close of the war he labored around through the different parts of the State for some time, and then came to Miami County, Indiana where he has been a resident for about twenty years. In 1870 his marriage to Miss Mary A. Hooper, a daughter of Thomas H. and Sarepta (Woodruff) Hooper was solemnized, to whom have been born two children-Charles Thomas and William C., the latter of whom was deceased while an infant six months of age.

He is an ardent advocate of the Republican party and its principles and in 1884 he was the candidate of his party for the office of County Treasurer, and made a gallant race. He is a regular attendant of religious services but never yet has made a profession of religion. Until his departure for the war he was reared upon a farm and received a fair education, sufficient to enable him to teach the average common school.