William Judson Howe was born on 18 December 1838 at Burlington, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, the son of John and Carolyn Scott Howe. In October 1859 he married Jeanette Knights, whose father owned a farm five miles east of Troy in Bradford County. Prior to the war Howe appears to have worked as an itinerant farm laborer, with a permanent residence at the Troy farm. In August 1862 he enlisted in the Union army, and the following month was mustered in a private to Co. C, 7th Pennsylvania Cavalry. Howe served with this regiment for the duration of the war, attached to the Army of the Ohio (to January 1863); the Army of the Cumberland (January 1863 to November 1864); and the Cavalry Corps, Military Division of the Mississippi (to July 1865). He was present with the regiment in Middle Tennessee during the Stones River campaign (December 1862-January 1863), and fought in a number of cavalry actions that winter and spring. He appears to have been present at Chickamauga (September 1863), and rode with the regiment on Wilson's raid through Alabama and Georgia (March to May 1865). Beginning in April 1863 Howe was periodically attached to brigade headquarters as a provost guard, overseeing prisoners of both armies and performing various other duties. He was also detached from the regiment following the death of his horse in May 1864, performing various kinds of dismounted duty in East Tennessee and at Columbia, Tennessee until November (thus missing the Atlanta campaign). Howe rejoined his regiment at the end of the year and was involved in the battle of Selma in April 1865. He was discharged at Nashville in June 1865, and subsequently worked for the Tioga Rail Road Company in Tioga County, Pennsylvania. Howe and Jeanette had four children, one of whom, Della Isabelle (1869-1961) took care of him after his health failed in 1905. Howe died in Corning, Steuben County, New York in 1925.