Biography of William H. McKittrick
FROM OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE
A DESCRIPTIVE AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK
PREPARED AND PUBLISHED UNDER THE
AUSPICES OF THE SARATOGIAN
THE BOSTON HISTORY COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 1899
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WILLIAM HENRY McKITTRICK. CAPT. WILLIAM HENRY McKITTRICK, a gallant soldier and good citizen of Saratoga county, in whose honor Ballston
Spa Post No. 46, G. A. R., is named, was born in Granville, Washington county, N. Y., October 22, 1829, a son of
Bernard and Ann (Ewing) McKittrick. Bernard McKittrick was a native of England and came to America in the early
twenties. For a short time he was located in Quebec, Canada, thence removing to Granville, Washington county, where
his son William Henry was born, and subsequently to Ballston, Saratoga county, where he became a prominent citizen,
living to the advanced age of eighty years. He was a hatter by trade, but for many years was engaged in the retail
confectionery trade. He served the town as collector in 1851, 1854, 1857, 1859 to 1863, 1865, and from 1868 to
1877.
During his early boyhood the subject of this notice worked about his father’s store and attended the common schools.
He seemed, however, to have inherited a military spirit, for at the extremely early age of seventeen years he enlisted
in the United States army to serve through the Mexican war. At the outbreak of the Civil war he was among the first
to volunteer, and went out as captain of Company C, 115th Regiment N. Y. Vols. He was a man of intense devotion
to duty and a stern disciplinarian, but withal so humane and considerate of those under his command that he won
the love and respect of all. Captain McKittrick gave his life for his country. He was killed at the battle of Fort
Gilmer, on the north side of the James river near Richmond, while leading his company in a gallant charge against
masked batteries of the enemy.
Captain McKittrick was a Free and Accepted Mason and a member of the Episcopal church of Ballston Spa. For a number
of years he held a position of trust in the county clerk’s office. He married Caroline Holmes, a daughter of Hugh
Holmes, and two children were born to them: William H. and Mary J. William H. is extensively engaged in cattle
raising at Bakersfield, California. He married Mary L., daughter of Major-General William R. Shafter. William Holmes
McKittrick’s name will go down in history, for as a captain on the staff of General Shafter during the late war
with Spain, he raised the first American flag at Santiago, July 17, 1898.
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