William W. Shafer was living in Clifton in Pierce County, Wisconsin, when he enlisted on August 8, 1862. He served as a private in Company F of the 30th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and mustered out September 20, 1865.
Shafer was born in July 1845 in Hancock County, Illinois. He settled in the Saint Croix Valley in Wisconsin in 1860. After the Civil War he lived and worked mostly in River Falls. He married Ellen Thone (1849-1933) on March 20, 1875. William W. Shafer died on December 24, 1921, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in River Falls.
Following is a certificate in the collections of the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. It notes that he was 17 years old when he enlisted and that he left for service on September 18, 1862.
The Civil War and Northwest Wisconsin 