William Archelaus Hughes, son of Samuel Moore and Louisiana Armstrong Rutledge Hughes, was born on November 29, 1831, in Sullivan County, Tennessee, and was listed as a storekeeper in the 1850 Census. He was mustered as a private on May 1, 1861, in Columbia, Tennessee, into Captain William R. Johnson's company, later Company H, 1st Regiment Tennessee Infantry. He fought at Cheat Mountain, Shiloh, Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, and in the Atlanta Campaign until June 27, 1864, at Kennesaw Mountain. There, along the Kennesaw Line at the position later called the Dead Angle, he fought beside his mess-mate Sam R. Watkins during repeated assaults by the United States Army. When an attacking soldier was about to shoot Watkins at point-blank range, Hughes seized the musket's muzzle and pulled it toward himself, taking the full blast. He was sent from the trenches to Catoosa Hospital in Griffin, where his wounds turned gangrenous, and he died on July 16, 1864. In later years he was posthumously awarded the Confederate Medal of Honor for giving his life to save a friend, and his medal is displayed at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park on permanent loan from the National Sons of Confederate Veterans in Columbia, Tennessee.