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social pressure on his business to contribute "at least one man to the service." He disapproved of secession and was critical of the leadership, but felt it would have discredited both himself and his
Scottish countrymen to withdraw from his commitment when war commenced. He was also aware foreigners who did not volunteer would be coerced, or be persecuted by being banished and their property confiscated. He was a
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He joined the local Rifle
Volunteers, and when the Civil War broke out enlisted in the Confederate Army. Other British citizens had joined up for various motivations, including financial interests as well as support for the cause. Watson was sympathetic to the Confederacy, and also conscious of
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Trained as an shipbuilding engineer, Watson immigrated about 1845 to the
Caribbean Islands, where he worked as a civil engineer and occasional captain of sailing vessels. Sometime about 1850 he moved to
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63:. He had come to Skelmorlie in 1820 to lay out the grounds of Ashcraig, the estate of Andrew D. Campbell, a retired sugar planter.
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Life in the
Confederate army, being the observations and experiences of an alien in the South during the American Civil war.
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Life In The
Confederate Army: Being The Observations And Experiences Of An Alien In The South During The American Civil War
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Life in the
Confederate army, being the observations and experiences of an alien in the South during the American Civil War
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and by 1860 was part owner of a sawmill and a coal and steamboat business in
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Skelmorlie: The Story of the Parish
Consisting of Skelmorlie and Wemyss Bay
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59:. His father, a landscape gardener named Henry Watson, had been born in
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After the war, Watson returned to
Scotland and began a business in
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William Watson was born in about 1826 in the
Scottish village of
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39:(1888) that he wrote after the war chronicling his army life.
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The
Adventures Of A Blockade Runner; Or, Trade In Time Of War
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The Blessed Place of Freedom: Europeans in Civil War America
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This article about a person of the American Civil War is a
27:(born c. 1826, died 1906) was a writer and soldier in the
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and served in a number of military campaigns with the
126:, published in 1888. This was followed in 1892 by
35:. He is most noted for an autobiographical book
20:"Life in the Confederate army" (1888) title page
281:People of Louisiana in the American Civil War
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106:. Watson was then discharged, and became a
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286:British people of the American Civil War
168:. Potomac Books, Inc. pp. 61, 89–.
301:Scottish emigrants to the United States
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152:New York, Scribner & Welford, 1888.
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316:Foreign Confederate military personnel
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296:Historians of the American Civil War
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326:American Civil War biography stubs
207:Library of Congress Online Catalog
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51:, some twenty-five miles west of
291:Confederate States Army soldiers
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234:. You can help Knowledge by
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29:Confederate States Army
321:People from Skelmorlie
162:Dean B. Mahin (2002).
85:3rd Louisiana Infantry
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94:His battles included
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191:Walter Smart (1968)
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175:978-1-57488-484-5
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134:References
114:Postbellum
104:Beechgrove
49:Skelmorlie
100:Pea Ridge
96:Oak Hills
69:Louisiana
43:Biography
120:Greenock
89:regiment
81:sergeant
83:in the
61:England
55:on the
53:Glasgow
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232:stub
170:ISBN
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