Perhaps to avoid the disapproval of his family, William J. Affleck enlisted under the alias, William Jeffries. He was born in Liverpool, England, on December 23, 1836, and he stated that he was 24 years old when he enlisted at Monroeville, Ohio, on June 6, 1861. He served for three years in Company G and with the Field and Staff. Although starting out the war as only a private, Jeffries impressed his comrades and received a promotion to first sergeant on December 14, 1861. Performing well as a leader at the Battle of Shiloh and at the seige of Corinth, Mississippi, he received a commission as a second lieutenant on June 3, 1862.

Mired in a company with only average officers above him, Jeffries seemed doomed to finish his career as a second lieutenant. However, like many other officers deserving of promotion, Jeffries received another promotion to first lieutenant on April 21, 1864, and Colonel A. T. M. Cockerill appointed him to the vacant regimental adjutant's position.

Following his muster out with the regiment on June 24, 1864, William Jeffries returned to Huron County and resumed his life as William J. Affleck. He moved to Sandusky and continued his public service as clerk of the Erie County Courts for six years. In 1883, he went into the wholesale ice trade.

In August 1867, he married Isabella Duff, who was born in Scotland. This marriage produced four children, three of whom survived to adulthood; John R., born in 1868; Harriet E., and William W.

Affleck was very active in civic organizations. He and another member of the 24th OVI, John Heeter, were organizers of Sandusky's Dr. Robert R. McMeens Post, Grand Army of the Republic. Affleck was the post's original senior vice commander. In September 1893, Affleck's comrades elected him president of the 24th OVI veterans' reunion organization and charged him with staging the 1894 reunion in Sandusky, Ohio.

Late in life, Affleck moved into the Sandusky, Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Home, where he died on July 18, 1925.

Sources: 24th Ohio Infantry Regiment Pension Index
Lewis Cass Aldrich, "History of Erie County, Ohio (1889).

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