★★★ Norris, William

William Norris

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Colonel Norris.gif


Born: December 6, 1820

Birth Place: Baltimore County, Maryland

Father: Richard Norris 1783 – 1859
(Buried: All Saints Episcopal Church, Reisterstown, Maryland)​

Mother: Susan Fitzhugh Voss 1789 – 1879
(Buried: All Saints Episcopal Church, Reisterstown, Maryland)​

Wife: Ellen Lyles Hobson 1825 – 1901
(Buried: All Saints Episcopal Church, Reisterstown, Maryland)​

Education:

1840: Graduated from Yale College​

Occupation before War:

1849: Lived in California During the Gold Rush​
Judge Advocate to the United States Pacific Squadron​
President of Baltimore Mechanical Bakery​

Civil War Career:

Civilian Aide to John Bowie Magruder​
Established a System of Signals on the Peninsula & James River​
Commander of Confederate States Secret Service Bureau​
Colonel and Commissioner of Exchange of Prisoners of War​
1865: Swore allegiance to the United States Government​

Occupation after War:

Lived in Brookline, Maryland​
Considered going to Chile to set up a signal corps​
Spoke out in defense of John H. Surratt​

Died:
December 29, 1896

Place of Death: Reistertown, Maryland

Age at time of Death: 76 years old

Burial Place: All Saint's Cemetery, Reistertown, Maryland
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Often confused with Dr. William S. Morris, president of the Southetn Telegraph Company during the war. His eyewitness account of the battle between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia was published in the Southern Magazine in 1874.
 
This bio states that he was an aide to a John Bowie Magruder, it was Brigadier General John Bankhead Magruder. It was Magruder who sent Norris to Norfolk to study signals under Captain Milligan and later gave Norris the authority to establish a system of signals on the Peninsula.Norris was commissioned a Captain for his efforts.
 
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