William Hiser Richardson

Born: 18 May 1806 Craven County, North Carolina

Died: 9 Mar 1848 Puebla, Mexico

First Sgt, Company E, 4th Tennessee Infantry, USA

23 Oct 1847-9 Mar 1848

William Hiser was the son of Andrew Hiser Richardson Sr and Elizabeth "Betsy" McCoy.  He married Sarah Goslin, daughter of John Goslin Jr and Sarah Gaskins in 1828 in Craven County, North Carolina.  They had two children born in Craven County before they migrated to Tennessee in 1832.  They had a total of nine children between 1830 and 1846.  Sarah was an only child but William Hiser had five siblings living when they left North Carolina.  None of the other family came with them to Tennessee.  Andrew Hiser's will indicates that he died in possession of 17,000 acres of land and over 20 slaves.  What happened to William Hiser's inheritance is unknown but he appears to have arrived on Mine Lick Creek without a lot of resources.

Hiser was a commonly used name in this family. It has been spelled many different ways. I use Hiser because that is the consistent spelling used in Andrew Hiser Richardson Sr.'s family Bible which is the oldest original source that I am aware of.   

When William Hiser decided to enlist to fight in the Mexican War, he took his oldest living son (age 15), William Andrew, with him to the Army and left his wife on Mine Lick Creek with seven children ages 14 to one.  He died of "unspecified illness" in Puebla, Mexico.  William Andrew, his son, lived through the war and returned to Mine Lick Creek.  William Hiser's body is in a unknown grave in Mexico.  An "in memory of" Veterans tombstone is erected next to his wife in the Richardson Cemetery on Mine Lick Creek.

The Roberts and Richardson homesteads were about a mile and a half apart on Mine Lick Creek.  Six years after William Hiser's death, Francis Marion Roberts married his daughter, Sarah.  Many of us descendants can claim William Hiser Richardson and Sarah Goslin as our fore-parents. 

The William Hiser Richardson homestead is at

Sandy Adams has the report of Samuel Moss' pension application on her family tree at ancestry.com  A portion is given below. Assumptions can be made regarding Company E's combat maneuvers from his report.

On 22 September 1852, Samuel Archer Moss requested an invalid pension because of health problems resulting from his service in the Mexican War. He reported that after he volunteered in Nashville, he was transported to New Orleans, Louisiana, then to Veracruz, Mexico.  From Veracruz, he marched to Jalapa, then to Pueblo (NOTE; William Hiser Richardson died here) where in January of 1848, he was attacked with diarrhea.  In his request, he stated tht the diarrhea, ". . . so prostrated him as to render him incapable of performing military duty and in consequence of which he remained till about the 12th of February 1848 at which time he became so improved that he went with the Illinois Regiment to the city of Mexico thence to Molenodelra and returned to his company from thence to St. Augusti;ne with his company but was unable to perform military duty in consequence of said disease thence to Ausaro where on or about the 24th day of June 1848 said disease became so bad upon him that he was hauled to Veracruz thence was transported to Memphis, Tennessee, with his  company where on the last day of July 1848 he was honorable discharged....." It is likely that William Andrew Richardson accompanied Moss during this last leg as William Andrew was also discharged in Memphis on 31 Jul 1848.