Bond, William Robert

20 Aug. 1839–20 June 1922

William Robert Bond, Confederate soldier and author, was born in Halifax, the only child of Dr. Robert Cannon Bond and his wife, Martha Long. Dr. Bond was a native of Raleigh and, after attending The University of North Carolina, was graduated in medicine from the University of Pennsylvania. He settled in Halifax to practice and was the last representative from the borough in the House of Commons in 1835. William R. Bond received an A.B. degree from The University of North Carolina in 1861. He entered the Confederate Army and was assigned to Company F of the Forty-third North Carolina Regiment. He was later aide-de-camp to General Junius Daniel and eventually attained the rank of captain. Gravely wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg, he was captured on retreat and imprisoned for the remainder of the war.

In the decades following the war, the question whether the North Carolinian James Pettigrew or the Virginian George Pickett had advanced the furthest on Gettysburg became a subject of great interest and debate. Bond wrote a pamphlet supporting the North Carolinian, entitled Pickett or Pettigrew. It was published in 1888 and attracted considerable notice at the time. Bond also wrote an excellent, concise account of Halifax County for In the Coal and Iron Counties of North Carolina, edited by Peter M. Hale and printed in Raleigh in 1883.

In 1872, Bond married Eliza, the daughter of Dr. Stuart Hall of Scotland Neck; they had no children. They resided at Albin, a fine plantation house in Scotland Neck Bond had inherited from his aunt Eliza Bond, the widow of Colin M. Clark. Bond and his wife were buried in Trinity Cemetery in Scotland Neck.