From Military Annals of Tennessee, Confederate, John Berrien Lindsley, p. 385, re 20th Tennessee.

"Co. H, from Franklin, Williamson county, was commanded by Capt. Mosco B. Carter, who was promoted to be Lieutenant- colonel at the organization of the regiment. He was succeeded by Capt. Fount De Graffenried, and he by one of nature's noblemen, the modest and gallant W. W. Shy, who was afterward promoted to be Major, Lieutenant-colonel, and Colonel, and was in command of his regiment on the disastrous fields of Franklin and Nashville. In the latter engagement, while at the head of his command contending against superior numbers, he was killed; and the earth never drank more gallant blood. Cannae had her Hannibal, Lodi her Lannes, Trafalgar her Nelson, and Nashville her Shy. When his aged mother heard of his death, she remarked, 'I wish I had a hundred sons to die in such a cause.' Could a man with such a mother fail to be such a soldier? Requiescat in pace!"

George Martin