Corporal Charles Boardman Mead, Co. F, 1st U.S. Sharpshooters, was born in Fair Haven on 5 April 1843, the son of Andrew Jackson and Ellen Boardman Mead. He had two sisters, Ellen and Charity, and two brothers, John and Carlos Eugene. Charles and Carlos (known as Gene) were especially close and enlisted and served together in Company F.
They were great-great-grandsons of Col. James Mead, Rutland's first settler.
Cpl. Mead was killed in action early in the morning of Friday, 17 June 1864 near Petersburg, Virginia during the seige of that place by The Army of the Potomac under Gen. Grant. He was initially buried there, but some time later his body was returned home to West Rutland and interred in Pleasant Street cemetery. His brother Gene wrote the final entry in Charley's 1864 Diary in pencil on Friday, 17 June as it read as follows: "Charley was shot at about 7 AM. and died at 8:30 AM. He did not speak a word after he was hit the ball struck him over the right ear and came out the back side of his head taking a right oblique course it passed through a yellow pine log six inches in diameter before it hit Charley. I write this not knowing whether I can ever be permited to write a more particular account hoping it may reach home. Eugene."
In his A History of Company F, First United States Sharp Shooters, William Y. W. Ripley wrote: The Company suffered a severe loss at this place [Petersburg] by the death of Corporal Charles B. Mead, who was shot through the head and instantly killed. Corporal Mead was one of the recruits who joined in the autumn of 1862, and has been constantly with the company and constantly on duty ever since, except while recovering from a former wound received at Gettysburg. He was one of two brothers who enlisted at the same time, the other, Carlos E. Mead, having been himself wounded. He was a young man of rare promise, and his early death brought sadness, not only to his comrades in the field, but to a large circle of friends at home ....
In February of 1859, in a composition book of his from Rutland Union High School, Charles wrote the following under the title of "War:"
"Would that the God of war had been dead long ago.
He has produced devastation enough already on mankind.
What a theme it is for the thoughts to dwell upon!
What misery it has caused to fall on persons of all sexes and ages!
It has cost more property and lives than any other unnatural evil of mankind.
It has made more hearthstones desolate; it has caused more hearts to feel the deep anguish of loneliness and that feeling of wretchedness which is beyond the power of words to paint, than the other calamities that belong to the human race.
I repeat it, would that the God of War was dead; would that all traces of his existance were blotted out from the thoughts of men, would that its votaries were few, weak and far between; that every vestage of its existance were swept from the face of the Earth; that all things pertaining to it in any shape or form were silent and dumb as the grave and would ever remain so."
Yes, would that the God of War was dead, as he took this young man's life, one of so many from 1861 to 1865.
They were great-great-grandsons of Col. James Mead, Rutland's first settler.
Cpl. Mead was killed in action early in the morning of Friday, 17 June 1864 near Petersburg, Virginia during the seige of that place by The Army of the Potomac under Gen. Grant. He was initially buried there, but some time later his body was returned home to West Rutland and interred in Pleasant Street cemetery. His brother Gene wrote the final entry in Charley's 1864 Diary in pencil on Friday, 17 June as it read as follows: "Charley was shot at about 7 AM. and died at 8:30 AM. He did not speak a word after he was hit the ball struck him over the right ear and came out the back side of his head taking a right oblique course it passed through a yellow pine log six inches in diameter before it hit Charley. I write this not knowing whether I can ever be permited to write a more particular account hoping it may reach home. Eugene."
In his A History of Company F, First United States Sharp Shooters, William Y. W. Ripley wrote: The Company suffered a severe loss at this place [Petersburg] by the death of Corporal Charles B. Mead, who was shot through the head and instantly killed. Corporal Mead was one of the recruits who joined in the autumn of 1862, and has been constantly with the company and constantly on duty ever since, except while recovering from a former wound received at Gettysburg. He was one of two brothers who enlisted at the same time, the other, Carlos E. Mead, having been himself wounded. He was a young man of rare promise, and his early death brought sadness, not only to his comrades in the field, but to a large circle of friends at home ....
In February of 1859, in a composition book of his from Rutland Union High School, Charles wrote the following under the title of "War:"
"Would that the God of war had been dead long ago.
He has produced devastation enough already on mankind.
What a theme it is for the thoughts to dwell upon!
What misery it has caused to fall on persons of all sexes and ages!
It has cost more property and lives than any other unnatural evil of mankind.
It has made more hearthstones desolate; it has caused more hearts to feel the deep anguish of loneliness and that feeling of wretchedness which is beyond the power of words to paint, than the other calamities that belong to the human race.
I repeat it, would that the God of War was dead; would that all traces of his existance were blotted out from the thoughts of men, would that its votaries were few, weak and far between; that every vestage of its existance were swept from the face of the Earth; that all things pertaining to it in any shape or form were silent and dumb as the grave and would ever remain so."
Yes, would that the God of War was dead, as he took this young man's life, one of so many from 1861 to 1865.
Corporal Charles Boardman Mead, Co. F, 1st U.S. Sharpshooters, was born in Fair Haven on 5 April 1843, the son of Andrew Jackson and Ellen Boardman Mead. He had two sisters, Ellen and Charity, and two brothers, John and Carlos Eugene. Charles and Carlos (known as Gene) were especially close and enlisted and served together in Company F.
They were great-great-grandsons of Col. James Mead, Rutland's first settler.
Cpl. Mead was killed in action early in the morning of Friday, 17 June 1864 near Petersburg, Virginia during the seige of that place by The Army of the Potomac under Gen. Grant. He was initially buried there, but some time later his body was returned home to West Rutland and interred in Pleasant Street cemetery. His brother Gene wrote the final entry in Charley's 1864 Diary in pencil on Friday, 17 June as it read as follows: "Charley was shot at about 7 AM. and died at 8:30 AM. He did not speak a word after he was hit the ball struck him over the right ear and came out the back side of his head taking a right oblique course it passed through a yellow pine log six inches in diameter before it hit Charley. I write this not knowing whether I can ever be permited to write a more particular account hoping it may reach home. Eugene."
In his A History of Company F, First United States Sharp Shooters, William Y. W. Ripley wrote: The Company suffered a severe loss at this place [Petersburg] by the death of Corporal Charles B. Mead, who was shot through the head and instantly killed. Corporal Mead was one of the recruits who joined in the autumn of 1862, and has been constantly with the company and constantly on duty ever since, except while recovering from a former wound received at Gettysburg. He was one of two brothers who enlisted at the same time, the other, Carlos E. Mead, having been himself wounded. He was a young man of rare promise, and his early death brought sadness, not only to his comrades in the field, but to a large circle of friends at home ....
In February of 1859, in a composition book of his from Rutland Union High School, Charles wrote the following under the title of "War:"
"Would that the God of war had been dead long ago.
He has produced devastation enough already on mankind.
What a theme it is for the thoughts to dwell upon!
What misery it has caused to fall on persons of all sexes and ages!
It has cost more property and lives than any other unnatural evil of mankind.
It has made more hearthstones desolate; it has caused more hearts to feel the deep anguish of loneliness and that feeling of wretchedness which is beyond the power of words to paint, than the other calamities that belong to the human race.
I repeat it, would that the God of War was dead; would that all traces of his existance were blotted out from the thoughts of men, would that its votaries were few, weak and far between; that every vestage of its existance were swept from the face of the Earth; that all things pertaining to it in any shape or form were silent and dumb as the grave and would ever remain so."
Yes, would that the God of War was dead, as he took this young man's life, one of so many from 1861 to 1865.
They were great-great-grandsons of Col. James Mead, Rutland's first settler.
Cpl. Mead was killed in action early in the morning of Friday, 17 June 1864 near Petersburg, Virginia during the seige of that place by The Army of the Potomac under Gen. Grant. He was initially buried there, but some time later his body was returned home to West Rutland and interred in Pleasant Street cemetery. His brother Gene wrote the final entry in Charley's 1864 Diary in pencil on Friday, 17 June as it read as follows: "Charley was shot at about 7 AM. and died at 8:30 AM. He did not speak a word after he was hit the ball struck him over the right ear and came out the back side of his head taking a right oblique course it passed through a yellow pine log six inches in diameter before it hit Charley. I write this not knowing whether I can ever be permited to write a more particular account hoping it may reach home. Eugene."
In his A History of Company F, First United States Sharp Shooters, William Y. W. Ripley wrote: The Company suffered a severe loss at this place [Petersburg] by the death of Corporal Charles B. Mead, who was shot through the head and instantly killed. Corporal Mead was one of the recruits who joined in the autumn of 1862, and has been constantly with the company and constantly on duty ever since, except while recovering from a former wound received at Gettysburg. He was one of two brothers who enlisted at the same time, the other, Carlos E. Mead, having been himself wounded. He was a young man of rare promise, and his early death brought sadness, not only to his comrades in the field, but to a large circle of friends at home ....
In February of 1859, in a composition book of his from Rutland Union High School, Charles wrote the following under the title of "War:"
"Would that the God of war had been dead long ago.
He has produced devastation enough already on mankind.
What a theme it is for the thoughts to dwell upon!
What misery it has caused to fall on persons of all sexes and ages!
It has cost more property and lives than any other unnatural evil of mankind.
It has made more hearthstones desolate; it has caused more hearts to feel the deep anguish of loneliness and that feeling of wretchedness which is beyond the power of words to paint, than the other calamities that belong to the human race.
I repeat it, would that the God of War was dead; would that all traces of his existance were blotted out from the thoughts of men, would that its votaries were few, weak and far between; that every vestage of its existance were swept from the face of the Earth; that all things pertaining to it in any shape or form were silent and dumb as the grave and would ever remain so."
Yes, would that the God of War was dead, as he took this young man's life, one of so many from 1861 to 1865.
Inscription
Charles B.,
killed in the Battle before Petersburg
Son of A.J. & E.B.
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