Three Brothers from Scotland

William Leslie Bremner ca. 1900

(Confederate Memorial State Historic Site)

William Leslie Bremner was born in Scotland on March 2, 1839.  He was the son of Robert and Madeline Bremner.  He came to Missouri with his family before the Civil War.  In September 1861 he and his brothers George Bremner and A. L. Bremner were sworn into the7th Division of the Missouri State Guard at Camp McGee, Missouri, under Colonel Freeman and Lt. Colonel Woods.  The Bremner brothers were assigned to Company D and were sent to Jacks Fork in Dent County, here they saw their first action in a minor skirmish.  On December 3, 1861, George Bremner was killed at Salem, Missouri in an engagement that also took the life of their captain. 

The surviving brothers accompanied their command to West Plains in Howell County, Missouri. Here the local ladies presented them with their first flag. Afterwards they were detailed to the Ordnance Department and put to work at the foundry in Springfield making shot and shell.  Forced to evacuate Springfield by the Federal advance in February 1862, William and his brother accompanied the retreating Missouri State Guard into Arkansas.  They fought in the Battle of Pea Ridge (Elk Horn Tavern) on March 7-8, 1862, after which they received their discharge from state service at Des Arc, Arkansas. 

William took sick at Des Arc and remained there with his brother acting as nurse until he was well enough to travel.  The brother made a skiff and went to Vicksburg.  Entering the Confederate service the brothers, who were skilled industrial workers, were sent to Columbus, Mississippi to make shot and shell, then to the ordnance works at Selma, Alabama to make cannon.  William Bremner was captured at Red Mountain Furnace in 1865 and paroled at Louisville, Kentucky on April 11 of that year.

Following the war William Bremner returned to Missouri where he managed to make his own living until 1910, when sickness and old age finally caught up with him. He entered the Missouri Confederate Home in December 1910 and spent the last ten years of his life there.  He passed away from the flu on July 10, 1920 at the age of 81.  He was a widower at the time of his death.