b. 14/10/1835 Reading, Pennsylvania. d. 31/10/1918 Norristown, Pennsylvania.
DATE OF MOH ACTION: 06-07/02/1865 Dabney’s Mills, Virginia.
William Sands MOH
Born in Reading, Pennsylvania on October 14, 1835, William Sands was a son of Harriet Sands. He was reared and educated in that city before embarking on his own journey as a married man during the late 1850s. By mid-June 1860, he and his wife, Hetty, were residing in Reading’s South East Ward with their six-month-old son, George.
He served as a First Sergeant in the Union Army in Company G, 88th Pennsylvania Infantry. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for action on February 6 and 7, 1865 at Dabney’s Mills, Virginia. Following his honorable discharge from the military, Sands returned home to his wife in Berks County, Pennsylvania, and resumed his job as a painter. By 1870, he was residing in Reading’s 4th Ward with his wife and mother. Although Sands and his wife, Hetty, were residents of Pen Argyl shortly after the turn of the century, Sands was making his home in Norristown by 1911, where he had found employment as an attendant at the State Hospital.
MOH CITATION:
Grasped the enemy’s colors in the face of a deadly fire and brought them inside the lines.
BURIAL LOCATION: CHARLES EVANS CEMETERY, READING, PENNSYLVANIA.
SECTION C, LOT 195.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: NORTHAMPTON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (1904 DESIGN), EASTON, PENNSYLVANIA.
