William Horn Battle (1802-1879) of Edgecombe County, NC, was the son of Mary P. Johnston and Joel Battle. William entered the University as a sophomore in 1818, became a member of the Dialectic Society, and received the BA degree in 1820. He studied law under NC Chief Justice Leonard Henderson and was admitted to the bar in 1824. In 1825 he married Lucy Martin Plummer, with whom he had ten children. Battle served as a member of the NC House of Commons from 1833 to 1835. A superior court judge from 1840 to 1848 and a member of the supreme court from 1848 to 1868, Battle twice was commissioned to revise the NC Statutes. He was professor of law from 1845 to 1868 and again from 1877 until his death in 1879. He also served as a University trustee from 1833 to 1868 and as president of the Raleigh National Bank (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography 1:118).