Charles Eversfield was born on December 25, 1821, in Prince George's County, Maryland, to John Eversfield and Ann Perrie. His father was a planter who owned at least 27 slaves. 

In 1840, Eversfield enrolled at the University of Virginia, where he studied medicine, chemistry, anatomy, and surgery. He earned his medical degree the following year, and in June 1842 he passed his examination to become an assistant surgeon in the United States navy. He received his appointment on May 29, 1843, and spent the next two years helping suppress the trans-Atlantic slave trade aboard the USS Macedonian. In 1845, he sailed to Monterey Bay aboard the USS Congress, the flagship of the navy’s Pacific Squadron. While there, he took part in the Mexican-American War, attending troops after the Battle of Rio San Gabriel in California in January 1847. 

In the early 1850s, Eversfield served aboard the USS Susquehanna, the flagship of the East India Squadron. He returned to America by 1853, and on August 16 he married Joanna Truxton Talbot, the daughter of naval chaplain Mortimer Talbot. After two years serving in the Mediterranean, he received a promotion to surgeon in 1857.

When the Civil War broke out, Eversfield and his brother William (another UVA Unionist) remained loyal to the Union. He was serving aboard the USS Vandalia around Cape Town during the winter of 1860-1861, and that March the ship received orders to return to America. He spent the next two years aboard the USS Vermont, assigned to blockade duty off Port Royal, South Carolina. In 1864, he was reassigned to the Naval Yard in New York, where he remained until 1867.

In 1869, he became the fleet surgeon for the navy’s European Squadron, and on March 3, 1871, he received a promotion to medical inspector. The following year, he became a medical director, the highest rank a naval physician can achieve. While stationed in New York in August 1873, he fell ill with enteric fever. He died on October 4, 1873, and was buried in Saint Johns Episcopal Church in Beltsville, Maryland.

Image: Charles Eversfield (NH 49667 courtesy of the Naval History & Heritage Command).