Charles Rollins was born around 1842 in Albemarle County, Virginia. He lived as a free man in Ross County, Ohio, before moving to Bloomingburg, where he married Dicy Morgan on October 23, 1862. Rollins enlisted in the Union army near Bloomingburg on August 30, 1864, and he mustered in as a private in Company I in the 4th USCT Infantry Regiment on September 3. His enlistment records describe him as 5 feet, 5 1/2 inches tall, with black hair, black eyes, and a black complexion. 

The regiment was stationed in Yorktown, Virginia, before joining the Siege of Petersburg later that year. The weather took a toll on Rollins's health, and he received treatment for frostbite in January 1865. The army transferred the 4th USCT to North Carolina in the spring of 1865, and Rollins mustered out near New Bern on September 5, 1865.

Rollins returned to Bloomingburg after the war. In the spring of 1867, he moved to Olathe, Kansas, where he joined the Second Baptist Colored Church. He and his wife had two children in Olathe: Walter, born on October 10, 1869; and George, born on October 13, 1878. Rollins suffered from chronic diarrhea and kidney problems later in life. He applied for a pension, but he died of tuberculosis in Olathe on October 7, 1879, before he could receive one. His widow Dicy applied for a pension, but she also never received one. With the help of his guardian George Hicks, however, their son George began receiving an $8 monthly pension in 1893.