William H. Sickles was born on October 27, 1844 in Danube, Herkimer County, New York. At the start of the Civil War he was living in Fall River, Columbia County, Wisconsin.

On May 11, 1861, at the age of sixteen, he enlisted in Company B of the 7th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment.

He was awarded the Medal of Honor “for extraordinary heroism on 31 March 1865, while serving with Company B, 7th Wisconsin Infantry, in action at Gravelly Run, Virginia. With a comrade, Sergeant Sickles attempted capture of a stand of Confederate colors and detachment of nine Confederates, actually taking prisoner three members of the detachment, dispersing the remainder, and recapturing a Union officer who was a prisoner in hands of the detachment.

Sickles mustered out on July 3, 1865, with the rank of sergeant.

By the time he was in his eighties he was living in Orting, Washington, where he was serving as justice of the peace. A newspaper article in 1933 talked of his son, Claude Sickles, beating him in an altercation and putting him in the Puyallup hospital in critical condition.

William H. Sickles died on September 26, 1938 in Orting, Pierce Co., Washington, and is buried at the Washington Soldier’s Home Cemetery (4-C-9) along with his comrade, Albert O’Connor.