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William Hall was born in about 1847 in Fayette County, PA, the son of Joseph and Elizabeth Hall and stepson of Elizabeth (Rowan) Hall. He was a casualty of the Civil War.

When he was age 13, in 1850, records of that year's federal census enumeration show him dwelling with his parents in Wharton Township, Fayette County.

Tattered battle flag of the 116th Pennsylvania Infantry Library of Congress

During the Civil War, on March 23, 1864, William and his brother Henry both joined the Union Army on the same day. William was no more than 18 years of age at the time. They were assigned to the newly reorganized 116th Pennsylvania Infantry, Company K, recruited at the county seat of Uniontown. 

Among other soldiers in the regiment was Silas Younkin, a distant step-cousin by marriage.

In his 1903 book The Story of the 116th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, in which William is named, author St. Clair A. Mulholland writes:

Company K was recruited in Fayette County, and on a beautiful spring evening the company marched to the railroad depot in Uniontown to take the cars for the seat of the war. The little city had sent hundreds of others during the previous three years, and hardly a family but had passed through seasons of sorrow, and the crape had floated from many a door-bell for the soldiers who would never return. Nearly every able-bodied man was at the front already and now all the schools were being deserted to swell the army. All the town turned out to see the last company leave for the field. The train was waiting and the local band that escorted the company ceased to play when the depot was reached. The ranks were broken to allow the leave-taking, every one of the boys had been loaded with all the tokens of affection and things of use- fulness that love could suggest, and all that remained was to exchange the last embrace, the last loving, heartfelt kiss, and say farewell. Then the cars moved off amid sobs and tears, the band played a farewell salute, cheers mingled with the mother's subdued weeping, and the train was soon out of sight. The crowd slowly dispersed, each one going to the lonely home to think of the boy who, living or dead, would be for all time to come the idol and hero of the family. Company K left Uniontown with eighty-one in the ranks. Within one short year twenty were killed in battle or had died of wounds. Eight had died of disease and four had died in southern prisons. Thirty-two out of eighty-one were sleeping in soldiers' graves. 

More about William's wartime service is being researched.

Tragically, whether due to wound or illness, William was admitted to a field hospital at Brandy Station, VA. There he died at a date unknown but either in 1864 or 1865. There is no record of his burial site. 

A record of his service and death was noted in Mulholland's book.

More than two decades later, on Nov. 8, 1886, his father Joseph applied for a military pension as compensation for the loss of his son. [Father App. No. 346.670] The pension was denied for reasons not yet known.

William's name in the history of his regiment - Internet Archive