Casper Coiner Henkel was born on April 17, 1835, in Virginia, to Samuel Godfrey Henkel and Susan Coiner. His father was a doctor who owned $18,200 of real estate and $4,192 of personal property by 1860. Henkel grew up and attended school in New Market, Virginia, before earning his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1857.

 

Henkel returned to New Market and earned a living as a doctor. He sided with the Confederacy during the Civil War, serving as a surgeon in the 37^th Virginia Infantry. The regiment took part in the Seven Days’ Battles, the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Battle of Gettysburg, the Battle of Cold Harbor, the siege of Petersburg, and the Appomattox campaign. He surrendered on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House as part of General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.

 

He returned to New Market after the war and resumed his work as a doctor. He married Margaretta Maria Miller on January 17, 1867, and their daughter Ellen was born around 1868. By 1870, they owned $5,500 of real estate and $2,000 of personal property, and they employed at least one Black domestic servant. He remained in New Market for the rest of his life, and he died there of diabetes on November 18, 1908.

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