Charles Griffin

After graduating from West Point, he served in the Mexican War and on frontier duty with the 2nd US Artillery in the Southwest. He was instructor of artillery at West Point in 1859-'61, He was made Captain in April 1861 and was in command of the "West Point Battery" at Bull Run. He was commissioned Brigadier General of Volunteers on 9 June 1862.

He was in command of the 2nd Brigade,1st Division of the V Corps,and was not engaged. He did see action at Blackford's Ford on the Potomac Ford near Shepherdstown on the 20th.

He was present at Gettysburg, and led a division from the Wilderness to Appomattox.

On 28 July, 1866, he was made colonel of the 35th infantry, and in 1867 commanded the Department of Texas, with headquarters at Galveston. On 5 September, 1867, while the yellow fever was raging at Galveston, he was assigned to the temporary command of the 5th military district on the removal of General Sheridan, and ordered to make his headquarters at New Orleans. He replied that "to leave Galveston at such a time was like deserting one's post in time of battle." He died of Yellow Fever at that post.

Source: Heitman, Francis Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, Washington, US Government Printing Office, 1903; and
Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, edited by James Grant Wilson and John Fiske. Six volumes, New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887-1889

Also see a fine biographical sketch from the Granville Ohio Historical Society [pdf].

12/18/1825; Granville, OH

9/15/1867; Galveston, TX; burial in Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, DC