Illinois Civil War Muster and
Descriptive Rolls Database (Illinois State Archives):
Spencer, Charles P. - Cpl - Co E - 100 IL US
INF
Residence, Joliet, Will Co, IL; Joined, 12Aug1862; Age 24; Born,
Vermilion, IL
Height, 5' 8"; Hair, dark; Eyes, grey; Complexion, dark; Single;
Farmer
Killed in action 19Sep1863 at Chickamauga, GA
American Civil War Soldiers (ancestry.com)
Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System Search Detail
(National Park Service):
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Veterans of the Civil War):
Will County Illinois USGenWeb
Necrologist Reports (© 2002
The ILGenWeb Project All Rights
Reserved):
Headstone Reading,
Published Obituaries:
Additional Biographical Material:
Charles
Parker Spencer
A feeling of
mingled grief, sympathy and indignation wells up from the heart as we
write
this name – grief that so noble a young man should be sacrificed,
sympathy with
the friends who yet mourn his loss – and indignation against the
originators of
that rebellion which made such costly sacrifices necessary. Charles
Parker Spencer was born August 12th,
1838, at ---, and was a little over twenty-five years of age at
the time of his death. The last four
years before his enlistment were spent in Oberlin College, and he was
about ready to graduate, when he felt it his duty to join the ranks of
those
who were fighting for the defense of freedom and the Union.
Coming home
from college in the summer of 1862, while the 100th regiment
was
being organized, he enlisted as a private in Co. E, and was at once
elected
corporal, which rank he held at the time of his death, although he was
doing
the duty of a sergeant. He participated
in all the varied fortunes of his regiment, always to be found at the
post of
duty, until that fatal day, the 18th of September, when he
fell upon
the field. One of his comrades, J.
W.Goodenow, writing to his friends a few days after his fall, says,
“There was
not a man in the company who was better beloved, or who will be so
sadly
missed.” His captain, W. W. Bartlett, writing to
his bereaved friends, says, - “Your noble boy was killed in the
desperate
charge we made on the enemy Sept. 19th.
He was in the front rank fighting bravely,
and was hit by a musket ball in the forehead, and died instantly. We were ordered soon after, to fall back, and
never recovered the ground, and consequently had no chance to bury the
dead.”
Thus in
common with many others, he was buried, if at all, by the hands of the
enemy,
and the place where his ashes rest no one knows. But
it is an unspeakable comfort to his
friends to know that although death was so sudden, it did not find him
unprepared; although his remains did not receive Christian burial, they
await a
glorious resurrection. For Charles
Spencer was not only a patriot, but he was an intelligent and
sincere
Christian. His letters which have been
kindly submitted to my perusal, breathe not only of his love to his
country,
and to his friends, but to his Savior as well.
Writing home
from Mufreesboro, he says:
“Mother! I am
seeking the path which leads to bliss, where there shall be no more war. Remember me in your prayers.
It is very hard under the present
surroundings to fulfill a Christian’s duty, but I am truly thankful to
God for
his many mercies, and with the prayers of a good, kind, mother and
grand
parents, I trust I shall never grow unmindful of them.
God grant I may grow in Christian
excellence. I endeavor to read my
testament daily.
Better than
fame, - better than rank, - better than “Storied urn, or animated
bust,” is the
precious assurance, which all who knew him feel, that while his bones
may
still,“By dark Chickamauga lie bleaching and cold,”his immortal part
flew from
that scene, where he did a patriot’s duty, and met a hero’s death, to
that
world where there shall be no more war!
"Fifteen
Years Ago: or the Patriotism of Will County", by George H.
Woodruff
Joliet Republican Book and Job Stream Printing House, 1876; Pages
510-512