Willis was born in September of 1866 in Mount Carmel, Connecticut and he enlisted in the US Army in 1898. He was a Private with Company H, 1st North Dakota Volunteer Infantry when he was deployed to the Philippines and it was his actions with Young’s Scouts that would earn him the Medal of Honor. The citation reads:

With 11 other scouts, without waiting for the supporting battalion to aid them or to get into a position to do so, charged over a distance of about 150 yards and completely routed about 300 of the enemy who were in line and in a position that could only be carried by a frontal attack.

Willis would reach the rank of Wagoneer and he received the Medal of Honor from President Roosevelt on the 16th of February, 1906. Willis H Downs died on the 15th of September, 1929, and he is buried in the Highland Home Cemetery in Jamestown, North Dakota: GAR Section.