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C.E. King

C.E. King

Federal (USV)

Musician

Charles Edwin King

"Charley"

(1849 - 1862)

Home State: Pennsylvania

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 49th Pennsylvania Infantry

Before Antietam

He was a 12 year old school boy when he enlisted in West Chester on 9 September 1861, and he mustered as Musician, Company F, 49th Pennsylvania Infantry on 25 September in Harrisburg. He was probably appointed Drum Major of the regiment in 1862.

On the Campaign

He was mortally wounded in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862:

Charley King, of Company F, was shot through the body, and fell into the arms of H.H. Bowles, of the Sixth Maine Regiment ...

The rest of the War

He died of wounds in a field hospital near the battlefield on 20 September 1862. He may have been the youngest soldier killed in the war.

References & notes

His service from the Card File1, which lists him at age 18, and Westbrook's History,2 source also of the quote and picture above. Personal details from family genealogists and Frassanito.3 His memorial is on Findagrave; his burial place is unknown, but his body may have been returned to West Chester after the battle.

His father Pennell King (1828-1902) served briefly as a Private in Company D of the 2nd Pennsylvania Infantry (6 September to 25 September 1862).

More on the Web

His drum is in the collection of the Antietam National Battlefield Museum.

Birth

04/03/1849; West Chester, PA

Death

09/20/1862; Sharpsburg, MD

Notes

1   Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Adjutant-General, Pennsylvania Civil War Veterans' Card File, 1861-1866, Published <2005, first accessed 01 July 2005, <http://www.digitalarchives.state.pa.us/archive.asp?view=ArchiveIndexes&ArchiveID=17>  [AotW citation 26057]

2   Westbrook, Robert S., History of the 49th Pennsylvania Volunteers, Altoona: Altoona Times Printer, 1898, pp. 124 (photo), 125  [AotW citation 26058]

3   Frassanito, William A., Antietam: The Photographic Legacy of America's Bloodiest Day, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1978, pp. 192-195  [AotW citation 26059]