TOMBSTONE TUESDAY: Charles DeWitt McNeill

TOMBSTONE TUESDAY (April 8, 2025): Charles DeWitt McNeill was born in Griffin, Spalding County, Georgia on May 5, 1848. Charley is believed to have been the youngest Confederate soldier of the Civil War, enlisting in the 4th Georgia Co. H on October 25, 1861, at the age of thirteen years, five months, and twenty-one days old. It is said Charley, known as “Campaign Charley,” in the Tennessee Army, was a sergeant on the staff of Gen. R. C. Tyler during the Battle of West Point, Georgia which occurred on April 16, 1865, one week after General Robert E. Lee surrendered in Virginia. General Tyler was killed during this battle, becoming the last general on either side killed during the civil war. https://exploresouthernhistory.com/westpoint1.html After Tyler’s death during the battle, his men kept fighting until sundown in a courageous last stand. Legend has it that Charley, with marked coolness and daring, raised the Confederate flag after it had fallen during the battle. At 6 PM, Fort Tyler finally surrendered. Charley, along with his fellow soldiers, were taken prisoner and then paroled on April 28, 1865. Following the war, Charles studied to become a Dentist and made his way to Texas where in 1870 he married Cornelia, a widow, in Liberty, Texas. Charles and Cornelia had two daughters, Kaleta and Delena Jerusha. Cornelia died in 1883, and Charles married Lucy Bell of Goliad, in June of 1886. In February of 1891, Charles was living in Victoria and was involved in a gun battle with Mr. John DeBat of Liberty County - each man “firing a dozen shots from pistols but none took effect," according to newspaper accounts. The cause of the difficulty was not noted. In July 1891, Charles received a patent for the invention of a Hay Press, which improved the construction and design of baling presses for compressing hay for baling. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth172750/

By 1900, Charles and Lucy were living in Port Lavaca. In 1904, Charles published a book entitled “Campaign Charlie or Ginger Crack Charlie, the boy who successfully wore the gray.” According to a February 1904 Victoria Advocate article, the book gives an “account of the three days battle in front of Atlanta Georgia. It is a credible and truthful version of the existing warfare at the time and furnishes interesting reading matter for everyone who wore the gray, as well as others who may never engage in battle.” The book sold for 25 cents a copy. Today copies are available on microfilm at certain libraries including Rice University and the University of Texas. In 1907, their widowed daughter Delena “Dee” passed away, so they took in their 7-year-old granddaughter, Lucy. By 1910, they were all living on Austin Street where Charles continued to practice dentistry next door to Ed and Bell Melcher, whose home still stands at the corner of Virginia and Austin St. Charles died on June 19, 1911, after battling pneumonia and is buried in the Port Lavaca Cemetery. There doesn’t appear to be any family left in Port Lavaca. His wife Lucy remarried in 1912 and lived the rest of her life in Alice, Texas where she is buried. Charles’ daughter Kaleta married Frank J. Polka and lived in Victoria. His daughter Dee was living with her family in Matagorda when she passed and his granddaughter Lucy married Thomas Luther, Jr. and lived her life in Mathis, Texas.

Tombstone Tuesday is written and compiled each week by Jody Weaver and Sheryl Cuellar of the Calhoun County Historical Commission, sharing the people and stories behind Calhoun County's history