Lieutenant William A. Cracraft, chief surgeon of the West Virginia division of the United Confederate Veterans, now residing at Elm Grove, Ohio county, was born in Claysville, Pa., February 23, 1844. In 1848 his family removed to Triadelphia, Ohio county, where he was reared, receiving his academic education at West Alexander, Pa. Though but seventeen years of age at the outbreak of the war, he entered the Confederate service in 1861, as a private in Shriver's Grays, Company G of the Twentv-seventh Virginia infantry, Stonewall Brigade. In Jackson's command in the Shenandoah Valley he participated in all the operations during the winter of 1861-62, and until the Battle of Kernstown, when he was among the captured. As a prisoner of war he was held at Fort Delaware from the latter part of March until August, 1862, then being exchanged at Aiken's lauding. He at once rejoined his command, and though his year's enlistment had expired, participated in the battles of Second Manassas, Harper's Ferry and Sharpsburg, when he accepted an honorable discharge and going to Richmond re-enlisted in the cavalry service. He was detailed for recruiting service in Rockbridge county, where, and in adjoining counties, he was successful in organizing two companies of cavalry, afterward known as Lady's Battalion, which formed part of the Twentieth Virginia cavalry, under Col. W. W. Arnett, brigade of Gen. W. L. Jackson. In this command Dr. Cracraft was commissioned lieutenant of Company I, the rank in which he served during the remainder of the war. As a cavalry officer he participated in a large number of battles, mainly in the Shenandoah Valley and in West Virginia, and was distinguished throughout for soldierly conduct and personal daring, as well as skill in command. Among these cavalry actions the most important were those at Beverly and Bulltown, W. Va., Droop mountain, Mill Point, Panther's gap, Staunton, Waynesboro, Lynchburg, Monocacy, Md., the demonstrations before Washington, D.C., during Early's expedition, a skirmish on the old battlefield of Sharpsburg, Shepherdstown, Smithfield, Leetown and Winchester, September 17, 1864. At Fisher's Hill, soon after the battle of Winchester, he was badly hurt by the explosion of a shell, which has seriously affected his hearing to the present time, and was compelled to accept a furlough of three weeks. Returning to his company in time to participate in the surprise of Sheridan's army at Cedar creek, also Lynchburg, he continued on duty in the valley during the remainder of the war, taking part in various minor actions, and being engaged in a scouting expedition in command of thirty men, at the time of the surrender of the army of Northern Virginia. He was paroled at Clarksburg, Va., in May, 1865, and soon afterward went to Staunton, where he procured a duplicate parole from General Duval, having lost the original. Leaving Staunton in June, 1865, he returned to his home at Triadelphia, and entered upon the study of medicine, a profession in which his father was distinguished. He attended the University of Virginia during 1866 and 1867, where he received his medical education. After practicing at Triadelphia four years, he made his home at Elm Grove. He is regarded as one of the leading physicians of Ohio county, and has been notably successful in his professional career. From 1872 to 1893 he was physician to the county infirmary, and in 1892 he was appointed physician to the Home of the Aged at Altenheim. His appointment as chief surgeon of the West Virginia division, United Confederate Veterans, was made in 1897. Dr. George A. Cracraft, father of the foregoing, also served devotedly in the Confederate cause, from just before the battle of Gettysburg until the close of the war, as surgeon, with the rank of major, first with Gen. A. G. Jenkins' cavalry and later with the Nineteenth Virginia cavalry regiment. He was a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1815, suffered banishment from Triadelphia in 1863, on account of his sympathy with the South, and after the restoration of peace survived until April, 1888.

(Source: Confederate Military History--Extended Edition. Edited by Gen. Clement A. Evans of Georgia. Wilmington, NC. Broadfoot Publishing Company, 1987.)
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