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Military Biography ~ |
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Dubuque County Civil War Soldiers
of the
Twenty-first Regiment Iowa Volunteer
Infantry
Historical information, notes &
comments, in some cases correcting the record
Soldier biographies written by
Carl Ingwalson
Carl will do look-ups in his extensive
records of the 21st Iowa and he is always willing to share what he
has. |
CHARLES WILLIAM ROEHL
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Charles Roehl, born in the Mecklenburg area of northern
Germany, was the son of Carl Frederick Roehl and Frederica (Roth)
Roehl. Charles had two sisters and a brother who have not been
identified.
On April 15, 1861, President Lincoln called
for 75,000 volunteers to augment the country’s regulars. Two days
later Governor Kirkwood called upon the citizens of Iowa for one
regiment composed of ten companies with a minimum of seventy-eight
men each. Volunteers came quickly and among them was Dubuque
resident Charles Roehl who enlisted on April 23rd in what would be
Company H of the 1st Regiment of Iowa infantry, a “90 days
regiment.” The regiment was mustered in at Keokuk and, on June
21st, left for war. While serving in Missouri, it participated in
the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, the first major battle west of the
Mississippi. The regiment was mustered out of service on August
21, 1861, and Charles returned to his home.
One friend said
Charles’s mother was blind; another said she was deaf. His father
was suffering from rheumatism and general debility and, according
to Lambert Kniest who had known the family for many years, Charles
“considered it a duty to aid and assist his father to as great an
extent as lay in his power.” He gave his parents money, groceries,
fuel, clothing and other necessaries of life but eventually, with
the war in its second year, he answered another call for
volunteers and was enrolled as a 7th Corporal in Jacob Swivel’s
Company E.
They were mustered into service as the state’s
21st Infantry at Camp Franklin in Dubuque on September 9, 1862,
and left for war a week later. Early service was in Missouri -
Rolla, Salem, Houston, Hartville and back to Houston. On January
27, 1863, they started another long march, one that would take
them to West Plains, Eminence, Ironton, Iron Mountain, Pilot Knob
and, on March 11th, into the town of Ste. Genevieve. From there,
they were transported down-river to Milliken’s Bend where General
Grant was organizing a large three-corps army to capture the
Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg.
The initial plan was
to move south along the west side of the river and then cross to
Grand Gulf after its batteries were weakened by gunboats. When
Grand Gulf proved to be too strong and too well defended, they
moved farther south and, on April 30th, crossed from Disharoon’s
plantation on the west bank to the Buinsburg landing on the east
bank. From there the army started a slow movement inland with the
21st Iowa in the lead.
About midnight, near the Abram
Shaifer house, a small advance patrol under the command of
Lieutenant Colonel Cornelius Dunlap drew first fire from
Confederate pickets. Others rushed forward and, for several hours,
the two sides exchanged fire that, due to darkness and the
unfamiliar terrain, was largely ineffective. Men on both sides
then rested in line of battle knowing they would soon face each
other in battle.
The May 1, 1863, Battle of Port Gibson,
also known as the Battle of Magnolia Hills, began with gunfire,
both muskets and artillery, about 6:30 a.m. More and more men
rushed to the front and fired as rapidly as possible. By the time
the morning's fighting ended hundreds of prisoners had been taken,
but the dead and wounded "lay thickly scattered over the ground.”
Confederates withdrew and abandoned Grand Gulf which was soon
occupied by the federals while the bulk of the army continued its
march inland.
The 21st Iowa had seventeen men wounded in
the battle. Some wounds were severe and others slight. For three,
the wounds would prove fatal. Dubuque’s Andrew McDonald had served
with Charles in the 1st Infantry more than a year earlier. Now he
was a 2nd Lieutenant and Charles was a 3rd Corporal, both in
Company E. According to Andrew, Charles was “wounded severely in
both legs by a fragment of a shell rendering the amputation of one
of his legs necessary.” The amputation was performed in the field
where Charles was treated for several days before being admitted
to the Mary Ann Hospital in Grand Gulf. James Bryan, surgeon in
charge of the hospital, said it had been “organized by
introduction of patients from the field after the battles at Grand
Gulf, Port Gibson, and the vicinity from the first to the
fifteenth of May, 1863. It was almost entirely a field hospital,
located on the slope of a prominent bluff occupied as a peach
orchard.” The best drinking water - “very muddy, and sometimes
fetid” - came from the Mississippi. Nurses “were partly enlisted
men, and partly female contrabands.” In July, Dr. Bryan wrote an
article describing the treatment provided to Charles, a comrade
from Manchester and fourteen other soldiers, hoping, he said,
“that the facts, as presented, will tend to improve our practice
in ‘amputations.’”
Case XVI. - Amputation Middle Left Leg
- Primary Double Flap. Charles Rehl, corporal, Co. E, 21st Iowa.
This patient was admitted on the tenth, having been wounded on the
first; he was treated meanwhile, but of the treatment no record
could be obtained. When admitted, the soft parts were in a
sloughing condition, with no signs of reunion; suppuration profuse
and exceeding unhealthy; the wound was also infested with almost
innumerable larvae; debility very considerable. The wounds was
carefully cleansed, and a weak solution of cupri sulph. injected;
gentle compression was made by rollers, and cold tar-water
applied. Tonics, milk punch, and anodynes administered. This case
progressed without improvement or anything peculiar, until the
20th, when the patient died.”
Frederick Meyer, a Dubuque
doctor, while serving as an assistant surgeon with the 11th Iowa
Infantry, had visited with Charles and said, “I found him in Grand
Gulf Hospital with one leg amputated that he received his injury
in the line of duty and died in said Hospital of Pyaemia.” The
place of Charles’s burial is unknown.
Charles had regularly
sent money home to his parents and they received his final pay and
the $75.00 balance of his enlistment bounty, but eventually their
resources ran out and Carl hired Samuel Burns, a Dubuque attorney,
to pursue a pension claim. On September 8, 1866, signing by mark,
Carl applied for a dependent’s pension. A month later, Frederica
died. Carl continued to pursue his claim, hired another attorney
and secured supportive affidavits from Andrew McDonald, Dr. Meyer
and numerous friends.
Unfortunately, despite the large
German population in Dubuque and more than fifty German natives in
Company E, the handwritten military records often misspelled his
name. Carl’s claim moved slowly as the Pension Office tried to
verify his son’s identity and service. According to the Adjutant
General, “the name of Charles Roehl is not born on Rolls of Co.
‘E’ 21st Iowa Vols, but that of Charles Ruehl appears.” The
Surgeon General, relying on Dr. Bryant’s report, had neither
spelling but did have “Rehl.” Two witnesses said, “the proper way
to spell the name being Roehl.”
Witness after witness
testified to the support Charles had provided to his parents.
George Hess who had served in Company E was now living in Dubuque.
For five months he had made out the company allotment rolls and
knew Charles had sent his father “the sum of ten dolls per month.”
Charles “took an interest in the welfare and comfort of his
father,” said another witness. He paid rent and supplied other
provisions. Eventually on April 12, 1869, a certificate was issued
entitling Carl to $8.00 monthly retroactive to when Frederica had
died. When a new pension act was adopted, Carl asked that the
pension be made retroactive to the date of his son’s death.
Unfortunately, pension records reflect nothing else and the
date of Carl’s death and place of his burial are not known. |
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