Charles Chase
Charles Chase was born around 1841 in Buckfield, Maine, to Thomas and Esther Chase. His father was a farmer who owned $2,000 of real estate by 1850. He grew up and attended school in Buckfield, and he moved to Boston, Massachusetts, in the 1850s. By the early 1860s, he was working as a clerk.
During the secession crisis, he hoped politicians could craft a compromise to avert civil war. He wrote that “the Republicans are on the right ground.” He explained that “I don’t want to give [southerners] an other inch of territory for slavery…I want the Government to let the South know that they cannot break up this Union.”
He enlisted in the Union army on August 4, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in Company D of the 23rd Massachusetts Infantry. As he explained to his brother, "I know I am needed and I am going." According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 8 ½ inches tall, with brown hair and blue eyes. The regiment took part in General Ambrose Burnside’s North Carolina expedition and the Battle of Cold Harbor. He remained devoted to the Union, and he denounced the "miserable Copperheads." In March 1863, he explained that there were "plenty of [soldiers] that are as homesick as you please but I have not found a single one who is in favor of making a compromise with the traitors."
In February 1863, he declared that “We all wish to see slavery abolished but at the same time we wish to see them sent out of the country, they and the white man never can live peaceably together.” The following month, however, he added that "if the blacks will fight I am willing they should." He died at Cold Harbor on June 3, 1864.
DATABASE CONTENT
| (3996) | Chase, Charles | 1841 | 1864-06-03 |
- Conflict Side: Union
- Role: Soldier
- Rank in: Private
- Rank out: Private
- Rank highest: Private
- Gender: Male
- Race: White
Documents - Records: 61
- (11221) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Roscoe G. Chase, 7 October 1860
- (11225) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Roscoe G. Chase, 16 January 1861
- (11227) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Roscoe G. Chase, 15 February 1861
- (11228) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Roscoe G. Chase, 7 March 1861
- (11231) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Roscoe G. Chase, 25 July 1861
- (11236) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Abbie F. Chase, 28 July 1861
- (11242) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Abbie F. Chase, 19 September 1861
- (11243) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Roscoe G. Chase, 20 October 1861
- (11245) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Roscoe G. Chase, 29 October 1861
- (11250) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Roscoe G. Chase, 7 November 1861
- (11252) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Unknown, 17 November 1861
- (11253) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Roscoe G. Chase, 24 December 1861
- (11254) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Roscoe G. Chase, 1 January 1862
- (11255) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Roscoe G. Chase, 16 January 1862
- (11261) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Roscoe G. Chase, 27 February 1862
- (11266) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Abbie F. Chase, 19 March 1862
- (11269) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Roscoe G. Chase, 4 May 1862
- (11270) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Roscoe G. Chase, 6 May 1862
- (11271) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Roscoe G. Chase, 21 June 1862
- (11272) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Roscoe G. Chase, 3 August 1862
- (11276) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Abbie F. Chase, 10 August 1862
- (11277) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Abbie F. Chase, 2 September 1862
- (11279) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Abbie F. Chase, 12 September 1862
- (11280) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Abbie F. Chase, 25 September 1862
- (11281) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Abbie F. Chase, 9 October 1862
- (11282) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Sister, 5 October 1862
- (11283) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Unknown, 11 October 1862
- (11285) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Abbie F. Chase, 14 November 1862
- (11288) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Abbie F. Chase, 26 November 1862
- (11289) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Roscoe G. Chase, 27 November 1862
- (11290) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Abbie F. Chase, 9 December 1862
- (11291) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Family, 22 December 1862
- (11292) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Sister, 29 December 1862
- (11293) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Brother, 1 January 1863
- (11294) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Abbie F. Chase, 15 January 1863
- (11295) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Thomas Chase, 20 January 1863
- (11296) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Esther M. Chase, 3 February 1863
- (11297) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Sister, 14 February 1863
- (11298) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Roscoe G. Chase, 2 March 1863
- (11299) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Abbie F. Chase, 24 March 186X
- (11300) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Roscoe G. Chase, 29 March 1863
- (11301) [writer] ~ Charles Chase Manuscript Fragment, undated
- (11302) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Roscoe G. Chase, 4 April 186X
- (11303) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Brother, 27 April 1863
- (11304) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Roscoe G. Chase, 24 June 1863
- (11305) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Sister, 29 June 1863
- (11306) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Roscoe G. Chase, 11 July 1863
- (11307) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Roscoe G. Chase, 13 September 1863
- (11308) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Esther M. Chase, 25 October 1863
- (11309) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Abbie F. Chase, 17 November 1863
- (11310) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Sister, 31 December 1863
- (11311) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Family, 11 May 1864
- (11312) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Abbie F. Chase, 22 May 1864
- (11313) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Thomas Chase and Esther M. Chase, undated
- (11314) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Unknown, undated
- (11315) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Sibling, undated
- (11316) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Unknown, undated
- (11317) [writer] ~ Charles Chase to Sibling, undated
- (11318) [associated with] ~ Charles Chase Death Notice, undated
- (11320) [associated with] ~ Alonzo A. Miner to Thomas Chase, 8 September 1864
- (11322) [associated with] ~ "In Memory of Charles Chase," Julia Chase Poem, September 1864
People - Records: 4
Places - Records: 2
Regiments - Records: 1
- (294) [enlisted] [D] ~ 23rd Massachusetts Infantry
SOURCES
1850 and 1860 United States Federal Censuses, available from Ancestry.com; Military Service Records of Charles Chase, available from Fold3.com; Charles Chase to Roscoe Chase, 15 February 1861, DL1734.003, Nau Collection; Charles Chase to Sister, 14 February 1863, DL1734.039, Nau Collection; Charles Chase to Roscoe G. Chase, 3 August 1862, DL1734.020, Nau Collection; Charles Chase to Roscoe G. Chase, 29 March 1863, DL1734.042, Nau Collection; Charles Chase to Roscoe G. Chase, 29 March 1863, DL1734.042, Nau Collection
