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Before the Civil War, Charles was a surveyor for Vanderburg County and was involved in the sawmill and lumber business in Evansville, Indiana. On November 3, 1844, he married Antoinette Hedden Wood in Mechanicsville, Indiana and had two children: Charles Goodrich ad Sarah Maria. His wife died in 1852. A year later on May 8, 1853, he married Elizabeth Electa Hopkins and had three children: Hiram Hamilton was born in 1855, George Washington was born in 1857, and Ella, who was born in 1859.

On August 22, 1861 Charles enlisted in the 42^nd Indiana Infantry. He told his father: “Father, I leave you in your old age, because I feel it to be a religious duty. I feel that my country needs my service.” The 42^nd Indiana was organized at Evansville, Indiana on October 9, 1861, under the command of Colonel James J. Jones. On that same day, Charles was commissioned as a 1^st Lieutenant of Company A. Soon after the regiment was mustered into the Union army, the men marched to Henderson, Calhoun, and finally Owensboro, Kentucky. On February 25, 1862, the regiment arrived at Nashville, Tennessee. In February of 1862, Charles was promoted to full captain of Company A. The regiment marched with the main army to Huntsville, Alabama. After the news of Confederate General Braxton Bragg’s invasion of Kentucky, the regiment marched back to Nashville and with Union General Lovell’s Rousseau’s division, Union General Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio, marched to Louisville, Kentucky. On September 25, 1862, the 42^nd Indiana arrived in Louisville, Kentucky. The 42^nd Indiana was attached to the 17^th Brigade, commanded by Colonel William H. Lytle, under Union General Lovell Rousseau’s division, under the I Corps, commanded by General Alexander McCook.  The 17^th Brigade was comprised of the 42^nd Indiana, 10^th Ohio, 3^rd Ohio, 15^th Kentucky, and 88^th Indiana, along with Captain Cyrus Loomis’s Michigan Artillery. On October 2, the Army of the Ohio marched out of Louisville and headed for Perryville, Kentucky.

On October 7, the 42^nd Indiana was camped near Mackville, in Boyle County. The regiment did not expect anything to take place the next day. The regiment received orders to march at 6 am, but events began to unfold very quickly, and the men had to march out at 4 am. After marching for a few miles, they heard cannonading which grew in intensity and the men reached a hill where the Union batteries were located and the Confederate artillery were placed beyond in a strip of woods which hid them from view. The men were ordered to support Loomis Michigan battery, which began to open fire. When the men arrived to support Loomis’s battery, General Lovell Rousseau’s aide rode up and ordered Colonel Jones to take the regiment down into a ravine in front of Loomis’s battery to get water. At 10 am, the 42^nd Indiana took a position in the bed of Doctor’s Creek, at the foot of a rugged hill, about three hundred yards in advance, and one hundred yards to the right of Captain Cyrus Loomis’s 1^st Michigan Light Artillery.  The bank rose gradually towards the woods where the Confederate guns were located. The space between the creek and the woods was about a quarter of a mile with an open field in between. The rock bluff was twenty-five to fifty feet high. The bluff extended down the creek about a quarter of a mile and the bank gradually ascended again towards Loomis’s battery. The men had eaten salted pork and the hot, dry weather only worsened the men’s need for water. The men of the 42^nd Indiana found the creek dry except for a few puddles of water full of green scum. The desperate men skimmed the water and put the water in a pot and boiled the water and made coffee. The men were cooking and eating dinner, when the Confederate artillery fired a shot from their cannon, which passed directly over the heads of the field and staff officers, cutting the limbs and branches away, which fell with a crash. The next shot knocked away a stack of rifles. The Rebel artillery fell silent. At 12:30 pm, Rebel scouts emerged from the woods up the creek and discovered the 42^nd Indiana and reported back. Soon Major James Shanklin, of the 42^nd Indiana, remarked to Captain James Bryant: “Listen, did you hear that?” Major Shanklin heard the Confederate troops yell out: “By company into line: March!” which was followed by: “Forward into line, by company left half wheel.” Major Shanklin assumed the approaching force was one of the Union regiments taking position on their right. ^i.

In quick succession, the Rebel infantry under Major John E. Austin’s two battalion company of sharpshooters emerged from the woods and began to fire into the 42^nd Indiana’s right flank. While General Daniel Adam’s skirmishers and the 5^th Company, Washington Artillery, under Captain Cuthbert Slocumb and Captain Putnam Darden’s Mississippi artillery began to fire on the 42^nd Indiana, Confederate General Bushrod Johnson began his assault. A staff officer from General William Lytle dashed down the hill and gave orders for the regiment to break by companies to the rear and reform on the top of the hill to the left of the 10^th Ohio in an open field. Colonel Jones ordered the men to “Fall Back” and saying “Get up” to his horse, the horse jumped over the stone fence. While performing their task, the Confederates marched in double columns at the quick and fired on the 42^nd Indiana. The Confederate artillery resumed firing grape and canister shot into the retreating 42^nd Indiana. As each company tried to make their way out of the “slaughter trap”, through the gulches in the hill for cover or in plain view of the advancing Confederates, the 42^nd Indiana managed to reform. The men fell back to the brigade, which was comprised of the 10^th Ohio, 3^rd Ohio, and 15^th Kentucky who were lying in a cornfield. Sergeants Jack Jones and Nat Matheney of the 42^nd Indiana told the men that when they heard cannon fire: “Don’t dodge, as when you hear it, it is past.” The men formed behind a fence on the edge of a timber. The rest of the 42^nd Indiana was lying on the ground. 

Captain Peter Simonson’s 19^th Indiana battery and the 10^th Ohio on the left of the 42^nd Indiana engaged the Rebels as they advanced. The 10^th Ohio and 42^nd Indiana were at right angles and the artillery battery was on a small knob between the two regiments. Soon their attention was directed at a large Confederate force approaching their front. Instantly a heavy fire was opened on them, but the Rebel force continued to approach the Union line. Some of the trained marksmen of Company G, of the 42^nd Indiana was ordered to keep the Rebel flag down. Three times, the Confederate flag bearer fell, but the Rebels picked up the flag again. On the fourth attempt, the flag fell within seventy-five yards of the Union line. When the 42^nd Indiana fell back to a hill, the men were ordered to charge down the hill. While leading the charge Captain Olmstead fell, shot dead, the ball entering near the center of his forehead. He was urging his men forward and according to Captain S. F. Horrall, Olmstead said: “This is as good a place to die as any other.” ^ii.  Private George Kirpatrick, said that Captain Olmstead “raised his sword and called “Come on, Boys, and turned to go down the hill. He met his death at that moment, for a bullet pierced his brain. . . . The bullet which killed Captain Olmstead went between us and Captain Olmstead’s brains blinded us, as he fell directly before us, and we jumped over him, with the determination to avenge his slaughter.” ^iii. According to Major Shanklin, Captain Olmstead said “Oh” and fell dead.” ^iv.   According to S. F. Horrall, Captain of the Company G, 42^nd Indiana, Olmstead was “one of the best drill-masters of the line, and was loved by all.” During the battle, Lieutenant Smith, of Company C, was severely wounded. A stray shot struck Lieutenant Colonel Denby in the mouth. Major Shanklin received a slight scalp wound. While the 42^nd Indiana was lying down behind a fence, Captain Eli McCarty, of Company G, was wounded when a stray shot crushed his right shoulder. The Confederates closed in on the 42^nd Indiana. The 10^th Ohio, along with General Lytle, sustained heavy losses and Lytle was severely wounded and left for dead on the battlefield. The 10^th Ohio, 3^rd Ohio, and the 15^th Kentucky fought hard, but half of the men were either killed, wounded, or captured, and the entire Union line gave way and the 42^nd Indiana, along with the rest of the brigade retreated.  Interestingly Private George Kirkpatrick and Captain S. F. Horrfall of the 42^nd Indiana stated that Rebel infantry emerging from the woods were the “Louisiana Tigers.” They saw the 13^th Louisiana Infantry, under Colonel Randall Gibson, of General Daniel Adam's Brigade. The 13^th Louisiana Infantry were also known also the Avegno Zouaves.  Six of the companies of 13^th Louisiana wore “red bloomers, blue tunics and jaunty little red caps.” 

When the battle began on October 8, the 42^nd Indiana numbered less than five hundred men. After the battle, entire loss of officers and men killed or wounded and missing was 166 or one-third of the command. Of Company G, fifty-two men were present, by the end of the battle, only thirty-two were left. During the night, Peter Truckee and Captain Kirkpatrick went back to the field in the moonlight and found Captain Olmstead. The next morning five men of the 42^nd Indiana buried his body, but were not sure if the body was Captain Olmstead, because the Rebels had stolen his clothing except for his shoes and underclothing. The men found the rest of the dead of the 42^nd Indiana and sent Captain Olmstead body back home to his family. According to Kirkpatrick, the men never forgot their experience at Perryville and “we were always after that looking for a chance for revenge.”  ^v.

On October 9, the men found a large spring and filled their canteens with fresh water and began the chase after Confederate General Braxton Bragg’s Army of the Mississippi. As the men of the 42^nd Indiana neared the town of Perryville, they saw the dead bodies of four hundred Confederates piled up four feet high and fifty feet long, with a fence built around them to prevent the hogs from eating them. They left an officer and detail of men and made the citizens of Perryville bury them. The Union army followed Bragg’s army as far as Crab Orchard and turned around and arrived in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The Kentucky Heartland Campaign was over.

Captain Charles G. Olmstead’s body was taken to the New Salem Cemetery, Evansville, Vanderburgh County, Indiana. Written on his tombstone: Charles G. Olmstead 1823-1862. Captain of the 42^nd Indiana Volunteers killed at the Battle of Perryville while at the head of his command October 8, 1862. Aged 38 years 11 months. He was survived by his wife Elizabeth, and his children: Hiram, George, and Ella.

i.      James Maynard Shanklin, “Dearest Lizzie: The Civil War As Seen Through The Eyes of Lieutenant Colonel James Maynard Shanklin of Southwest Indiana’s Own 42^nd Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Evansville: Friends of Willard Library Press, 1988, 228.

ii.     S. F. Horrall, History of the Forty-Second Indiana Volunteer Infantry, published by author, 1892, 152.

iii.    George Morgan Kirkpatrick, Experiences of a Private Soldier of the Civil War, 1924, reprinted The Hoosier Bookshop, 1973, 14-15.

iv.    James Maynard Shanklin, “Dearest Lizzie: The Civil War As Seen Through The Eyes of Lieutenant  Colonel James Maynard Shanklin of Southwest Indiana’s Own 42nd Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Evansville: Friends of Willard Library Press, 1988, 231.

v.     Ibid., 17.

Figures in History

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