Pvt Charles Edwin Elwell

Third Great Grandfather of Camp Brother Kevin Tucker, PDC. 

Charles Edwin Elwell was born in Athens, Maine on October 22, 1842. He was the eldest of 7 siblings, the children of blacksmith William Elwell and Sarah (Sally) George. Charles was an artist who moved to Boston where he thought he might have better job opportunities.

At 19, he enlisted in a military company organized in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in response to President Lincoln’s call for states to provide military regiments following the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter. On June 13, 1861, the company became Company H of the 11th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. The 11th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, known locally as the “Boston Volunteers”, was raised largely through the influence of George Clark, Jr., an old militia officer from Dorchester, who became its first colonel. The 11th Regiment was one of the three Massachusetts regiments present at the First Battle of Bull Run, (a.k.a. 1st Battle of Manassas) in Virginia on July 21, 1861. It then became part of the famous "Hooker’s Brigade" under General Joseph Hooker. This brigade was eventually folded into the 3rd Corps, which conducted the siege of Yorktown, the battle of Williamsburg, Virginia on May 5th, and the battle of Fair Oaks, Virginia on June 25, 1861.

In 1862, the 11th was engaged at the battle of Catlett's Station, Virginia on August 27. It was heavily engaged near Groveton, Virginia during the 2nd Manassas, August 29, where it led the assault on the famous railroad embankment. It participated in the Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia where the regiment suffered relatively small losses. However, the 11th lost heavily at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia on May 3rd, 1863, and suffered still more severely under General Daniel Sickles at the Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on July 2, 1863, while defending the line of the Emmittsburg road.

The regiment was again active in the fall campaign near the Rappahannock River in Virginia, in October of 1863, and engaged in the Mine Run campaign in Virginia in the latter part of November. At this battle, Charles E, Elwell was wounded and sent to hospital.

He was mustered out of the 11th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry due to a disability on December 26, 1863, as a Sergeant. A year later, on December 10, 1864, he married Sarah Corson and together they had 5 children, two of whom lived beyond infancy, including my great-grandmother, Susan “Suzie” Etta Elwell in 1874. Sadly, Charles was the victim of homicide at the age of 39 in the South End of Boston on September 7, 1879:

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Boston Post 6 SEP 1879

An Unlucky Blow.

About 11 o’clock on Friday night, Dr. Dale of Leverett street was coming up that street, near the corner of Spring, when he saw two men seemingly engaged in an altercation near the corner of the street, As he approached, one of the men, who proved to be Charles E. Elwell, 37 years of age, residing at 27 Minot street, crossed over and met the doctor, to whom he remarked that he “did not want to fight the man.” As Elwell was keeping up on his way, with the evident intention of leaving his pugilistic antagonist, the latter ran up behind the retreating man and aimed a blow at him with his fist. Elwell just turned his head at the time, getting the full force of the blow just under the right ear, which dropped him like a log in the middle of the street. In falling, his head struck the horse car track, which cut a gash across his left cheek and raised a large bunch on the same side of his head. The doctor ran up to the fallen man, who had remained where he had fallen in an apparent lifeless condition. Help was obtained and the injured man was taken to Station 3, where every effort was made to restore him to consciousness but without success. Abut 12 o’clock he was taken to City Hospital. Every effort was made to find the assailant but without success, as he had left the neighborhood as soon as the blow was struck. The doctor describes the assailant as a man without any coat, a black derby on his head and a tin can in his hand. About midnight the officers arrested John D. McKay on the charge of being the man who struck the blow, but the doctor was unable to identify him. McKay was the last man who would be picked out as a shoulder hitter.

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Charles’ sudden unexpected death left his wife and two surviving children in poverty with no means of support. He is buried in the in an unmarked grave in the City of Boston’s Indigent Section at Mt. Hope Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts.