Capt. William E Dawson enlisted in MSG under Price at Lexington MO and served as a Pvt. in Guibor's Battery. He fought at Booneville, Carthage, Wilson's Creek, Drywood, Lexington, Elk Horn, Farmington, Iuka, Corinth, Hatchie Bridge, Port Gibson, Baker's Creek, Big Black, Vicksburg. Died on Steamer Dick Keys on way from Fort Gaines March 26 1864. He was a native of Georgetown D.C. Listed as resident of St. Louis at time of enlistment.
He was elected Capt. in McDonald's St. Louis Battery (see prior post) on July 27, 1862 after which the battery was sometimes referred to as Dawson's.
I am sure this is him as it is the only census match of right age he is a single male working as a clerk living in a boarding house.
1860
Wm Dawson
Age: 27
Birth Year: abt 1833
Gender: Male
Birth Place: District of Columbia
Home in 1860: St Louis Ward 6, St. Louis, Missouri
Post Office: St Louis
Dwelling Number: 81
Family Number: 125
Occupation: Clk
Household Members Age
Kate Varner 21
Alice R Smith 18
Hattie Clemens 22
Clarence Smith 27
Chas Lorette 30
Annie Lorette 30
Thos Millhopt 19
Wm Moreley 21
P C Cartledge 23
Wm Dawson 27
There was a large camp and 2 story hospital at Barlow's Mill that many of the ill with Measles at Ft Gaines were evacuated to in 1861/62. It was located about 14 miles SW of Mobile. The area had several camps on the Dog River including Hall's Mill/Camp Memminger. Uriah Barlow had a sawmill on the Dog River prior to the war and I suspect that is the location of Barlow's Mill camp. University of South Alabama's Center for Archaeological Studies on archaeology at the Dog River site, at the confluence of the Dog River and Mobile Bay refers to this site "A brickyard was located on Dog River from 1819 to 1831, and a sawmill was built nearby in the mid-1830s." There are numerous referrals to the cemeteries at Barlow's Mill and Hall's Mill, darned if I can definitively locate either in modern literature or maps. I do not find reference to re-interments at Magnolia Cemetery in Mobile. The precise location of Barlow's Mill Camp referred to in Alabama Civil War records remains a bit of a mystery apparently.
This 1863 map of the area shows the sawmill at the confluence of Dog River and Mobile Bay as well as a fortification just north of a mill (presumably the one referred to in the archeology report) across the Dog River. It also shows Hall's Mill and "rebel stables" there. The sawmill would be where 163/Dauphin Island Parkway crosses the mouth of Dog River today. https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3974m.cws00016/?r=0.31,0.217,0.047,0.021,0
With all this said, we don't really know the final destination of the Steamer Dick Keys on that day in March 1864, just that it left Ft. Gaines.
FWIW JJR