At the encampment much interest will attach to the survivors of the old Louisville Legion, which did such valiant service in the civil war. Many, too, will be the reminiscences of the gallant leader and soldier, Col. Berry. William W. Berry was born in Harford county, Md., February 22, 1836. After receiving a very thorough and complete education, he commenced the practice of law in this city. Among the strong characteristics of the man were his strong and sturdy fidelity and loyalty to the Union. At the time in which he settled in Louisville the State was honeycombed with numberless secession organizations, which afterward developed into the Knights of the Golden Circle. Recognizing the dangerous tendencies of these societies, he, with other loyal men, began to organize Union clubs. This was a very dangerous undertaking, as the Southern sympathizers were very bitter toward any one who wished to thwart their plans and maintain the Union. These Union clubs became in time military companies, Col. Berry having command of a company of 100 members, bound together by oath to support the cause of the Union.

When the war broke out, the Governor of Kentucky, in response to Lincoln’s call for troops, replied; "Kentucky will not furnish a man or a dollar for the purpose of coercion." Gen. Rousseau was at once sent to Washington to explain the situation to Lincoln. As a result of this, Lincoln ordered that the Kentucky troops be supplied with arms and munitions by the United States Government. Thereupon the Louisville Legion, numbering 2,200 men, was recruited and equipped for service, going into camp in June, 1861. Thus it was that the Legion became a Union regiment, and it was due to the efforts of Berry and his associates that the State did not secede from the Union. While the State government was in the hands of the rebels, the Legislature was composed mostly of loyalists. The Legion was the nucleus of the Army of the Cumberland, and was one of the most famous organizations in the Union army. With Col. Berry in command, it was engaged in many of the most hotly-contested battles of the war, its commander being shot five times in several different engagements.

Every volume of the official record of the rebellion bearing on the Army of the Cumberland contains commendatory references to the Legion and its dashing commander. Especially brilliant was the magnificent charge of the Louisville Legion up the side of the mountain in the battle of Mission[ary] Ridge, where Col. Berry, after being shot form his horse at the head of his command, insisted on being replaced in the saddle by his soldiers, and, supported on either side, was the first to reach the top.

Soon after the war Col. Berry settled in Winchester, Ill, and in 1872 came to Quincy, Ill., where he practiced his profession until his death, May 6, 1895. Brilliant and talented, he steadily declined political preferment. He could have been Governor of Kentucky at the close of the war, and had he permitted his name to go before the nominating convention would have been nominated and elected Governor of Illinois. In 1888 he was elected commander of the Illinois Department of the Grand Army [of the Republic]. As Chairman of the commission appointed by Gov. Oglesby to locate the Illinois Builders’ and Sailors’ Home he gained the esteem of the people of the State generally. In 1888 he made campaign speeches for Harrison in Michigan, Indiana, New York and Illinois. This brought him into political prominence, papers both East and West advocating his nomination as Attorney General. But he refused to permit his name to be presented to President Harrison. In his chosen profession Col. Berry was one of the leading men of the West. Personally he was a man of commanding presence, more than six feet tall and straight as a soldier should be. All who came in contact with him thought of him as the typical Kentucky gentleman.