Charles Austin Hale

A resident of Lebanon, he enlisted as Corporal in Company C, Fifth New Hampshire Infantry on 28 August 1861. He was probably promoted to Sergeant before Antietam.

He later wrote of his experience at Antietam:

What a bloody place was that sunken road as we advanced, and the Irish Brigade fell back; the fences were down on both sides, and the dead and wounded men were literally piled there in heaps. As we went over them in crossing the road, a wounded reb made a thrust at me with his bayonet; turning my head to look at him, I saw that he was badly hurt, and continued on. As we pushed forward into the [Piper] cornfield beyond the road, Private Charley Spencer in the front rank just before me, went down with an awful cry; stooping over him as I passed I saw that he had fallen forward on his face and was motionless. Just then a strand of canister went over our heads, and that was my dread; I could endure rifle bullets, but when the big iron bullets went swishing through the air with a sound as though there were bushels of them, it made me wish I was at home.

He was wounded in action at Fredericksburg, VA on 13 December 1862. He was appointed Sergeant-Major of the Regiment on 8 February 1863, and commissioned 2nd Lieutenant of Company H on 1 March. He was wounded again in action at Chancellorsville, VA in May 1863. Promoted to First Lieutenant, Company E on 2 July 1863. He was discharged at the end of his 3 year term, but appointed Captain, Company F on 3 January 1865. He mustered out of service on 28 June 1865.

He was living in Gettysburg, PA in 1893 and later in Chicago. He was probably a resident of the U.S. National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Milwaukee at the time of his death.

Basic service information from Child1. Life dates from his gravesite on Findagrave, source also of his photo, from one posted by David M Morin from his collection. The quote above from his memoir in the CWTI Collection at the US Army Heritage and Education Center, Carlisle, PA.

08/18/1841; Sidney, ME

08/19/1899; burial in Wood National Cemetery, Milwaukee, WI