Military Service
After graduation from Transylvania, he enlisted in the 9th Kentucky Infantry, fighting for the Confederacy. He was elevated to the position of lieutenant colonel and was wounded at the battles of Shiloh and Chickamauga before being taken prisoner at the Battle of Peachtree Creek near Atlanta. As a prisoner of war, Chipley was transported to Johnson's Island on Lake Erie in Ohio, and served time there until the war was over. In mid-1865, he settled in Columbus, Georgia and married Ann Elizabeth Billups, the daughter of a prominent Phenix City, Alabama planter.
Chipley would later be implicated in the Ashburn affair. He was brought to trial, in which the federal government attempted to jail Chipley for his role in the murders of the soldiers he fought during the Civil War. With Alexander Stephens representing the defense, Chipley was found not guilty by a jury of his peers. It was only revealed later that Mrs. Chipley had in her possession a letter Stephens wrote to Chipley, in which the government apologized to Chipley and offered him freedom because the prosecution had no evidence. Chipley turned down the offer, and instead waited for vindication at the trial.
Read more about this topic: William Dudley Chipley
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