Charles Augustus Ropes Dimon
Charles Augustus Ropes Dimon was born on April 27, 1841, in Fairfield, Connecticut, to James and Amelia Dimon. His father was a merchant who owned $9,000 of real estate by 1850. He grew up and attended school in Fairfield, and he probably moved to Massachusetts by the early 1860s.
He enlisted in the Union army on April 30, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company D of the 8th Massachusetts Militia Infantry. The regiment helped guard the railroad line between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland. He mustered out on August 1, 1861. Later that year, he received a commission as a 1st lieutenant in the 30th Massachusetts Infantry. The regiment took part in the Battle of Baton Rouge.
In October 1862, he was promoted to major of the 2nd Louisiana Infantry, a regiment of southern Unionists. He took part in the siege of Port Hudson. In June 1863, a surgeon testified that Dimon was “incapable of performing the duties of an office, because of an intermittent fever combined with a chronic constipation of the liver, produced and maintained by the influence of the miasmatic climate of the South.” He was discharged for disability on June 22, 1863, and he spent the next few months recovering.
He returned to the army in March 1864, mustering in as a major in the 1st United States Volunteer Infantry. This was a regiment of “Galvanized Yankees,” Confederate prisoners of war who swore allegiance to the United States and joined the Union army. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in April 1864 and then to colonel in August 1864. The army deployed the regiment to the Dakota Territory, and he served as commandant of Fort Rice. He mustered out on November 27, 1865.
He settled in Lowell, Massachusetts, after the war. He married Kate Thompson on June 30, 1869, and they adopted a daughter named Helen. He worked as a manager of the U.S. Cartridge Company. He supported the Democratic Party, and he served three terms on the local board of aldermen. He was elected mayor of Lowell in 1901. He died of throat cancer there on May 21, 1902.
Image: Charles A. R. Dimon (courtesy Wikicommons)
DATABASE CONTENT
| (3736) | Dimon, Charles Augustus Ropes | 1841-04-27 | 1902-05-21 |
- Conflict Side: Union
- Role: Soldier
- Rank in: Private
- Rank out: Colonel
- Rank highest: Colonel
- Gender: Male
- Race: White
Documents - Records: 2
Places - Records: 2
Regiments - Records: 4
Groups - Records: 2
SOURCES
1850, 1880, and 1900 United States Federal Censuses, available from Ancestry.com; Military Service Records of Charles A. R. Dimon, available from Fold3.com; The Boston (MA) Globe, 26 November 1901; “Charles A. R. Dimon” Wikipedia profile, available from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_A._R._Dimon
