Charles A. Chase

Company L.

Was born in Gainesville, Wyoming county, State of New York, on the 10th day of March, 1837. “At the age of twelve years I was thrown on my own resources, and worked by the month summers, did chores for my board winters, and went to school in same county I was born in. My education was limited. At the age of eighteen I had accumulated enough wealth to go west and grow up with the country. Came by boat to Chicago; drove a team from Chicago in the fall of 1855 to Black Rock Fails, Wisconsin; worked in the pineries that winter, and in the spring of 1856, with my clothes tied up in a cotton handkerchief. I took it afoot nearly five hundred miles to Anamosa. Iowa. There I ran across Wm. T. Shaw, afterward Colonel of the Fourteenth Iowa Infantry Volunteers, bought ninety acres of land from him, and went to work for him by the month. Worked for him until I was married, and after I was married for nearly one year, when the war broke out and he went to war. By this time I had got my land partly broken up and improved. The next spring; built a small house on it, and my wife, self and small child, a boy not a year old, moved into our new home. That was in the spring of 1862. In August, 1862, Lincoln called for 300,000 more men. I took a train and went to Dubuque and enlisted in Company L First Regiment Iowa Cavalry Volunteers, for three years or during the war: got a three days furlough, went home, and in three days bid my young weeping wife with babe in her arms good-bye, and started for the front. Was not long in getting into battle at Prairie Grove, where we met with a warm reception. I helped to pull out a mountain howitzer there that was between the two armies without receiving a scratch, but received two bullets in my clothes at the time. I re-enlisted on the 4th day of January. 1864, and was mustered out the 16th day of February, 1866, at Austin, Texas. Got home about the 25th day of March, 1866. In a short time went to Omaha, Nebraska; took a tie contract on the Union Pacific railroad; finished that; went to Aurora, Illinois; engaged in the milling business for two years; moved back to Anamosa, Iowa; went to farming; farmed for a few years; sold out my farm, bought a drove of cattle, and drove them to Laramie City, Wyoming Territory; was two months on the way. This was in the year 1874. Camped out with my family all the way — standing guard half the night from Central City, Nebraska, until I reached Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory. At Cheyenne I received the news of General Custer's death by the hands of the Sioux Indians. I did not shed many tears over his downfall, as I had suffered more hardships in six months under him than I did from the time I enlisted until the war closed in the spring of 1865 — all this, too, after the war had closed and it was not necessary to inflict such punishments on the old soldiers who had fought so long and hard to save the Union. I can forgive but never can forget him. I engaged in the cattle business until the year of 1881; was very successful at that. Sold out in 1881; went to Rochester, New York; engaged in the milling business there: was successful at that, until my health failed me in 1886, and I had to close up my business there. Went to Waukesha, Wisconsin, and by using the water from those mineral springs regained my health, and to-day finds me back at Laramie City, Wyoming, in the wholesale and retail grocery business, after an absence of seven years. During all this time my wife has stood by me, and if I am entitled to any credit, to her belongs more than half. We are both broken down in health, but hope we have enough of this world's goods to last us the few remaining years we have to spend here. I have nothing to regret in my life, only the six months' service under General Custer. The balance of my services while in the army I always tried to do my duty and did it cheerfully and without a murmur, and have always been glad that I was one that helped to save my country. I always found a true and good friend in Colonel Wm. T. Shaw; may he live to a good old age. I have nothing to say against any of our officers or men; I have a good will for all — don't know that I have an enemy either among officers or men. I think they all tried to do their duty as men to the best of their ability. It was a hard struggle and a long struggle, but thank God our country was saved."

SOURCE: Charles H. Lothrop, A History Of The First Regiment Iowa Cavalry Veteran Volunteers, p. 348-50