William Wallace Hammond was born in New York on May 5, 1837. Following the death of his parents, Hammond spent much of 1854 traveling through New York and New Jersey before joining the Army in 1855. Following training at Governor's Island, he was sent to Carlisle Barrack, Pennsylvania, to join the 2nd Regiment, Company I under Captain Delvua Davidson. The Comapany traveld to Fort Pierre and then Fort Randall, where Hammond was discharged in 1856 with the aid of his guardian Walter Watson. Hammond then joined a group of Army teamsters bound for Utah, but soon left government employ and was hired to drive an ox-team to the Salt Lake Valley by William Childs. After his employer refused to pay him for this service, Hammond volunteered with the 10th Infantry under Barnard E. Bee, joining George W. Cohery's company. In 1858, shortly after the Utah War, they traveled to the Salt Lake Valley, where Hammond would remain. In 1859 he married Mary Frances Bird, although she later left him and moved to California. Hammond spent most of the 1860s traveling throughout Utah, and also led a group of Mormon pioneers from the Missouri River to the Salt Lake Valley in 1863. He married Ruth Smith in 1865.
From the description of Autobiography of William Wallace Hammond, 1937, March 12. (Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens). WorldCat record id: 501192153
