On the morning of April 9, 1865, the Confederates broke through the Federal Cavalry in front of them in an attempt to continue their retreat west only to have their path blocked by Union General Ord’s Army of the James. General Fitzhugh Lee and his staff were in front of Pogue’s artillery when a bullet struck one of the members of his staff Charles Minnigerode Jr. in the back knocking him from his horse in front of Pogue’s Artillery. The bullet entered below the shoulder on the right and lodged in the ribs on the left side. The wound was very painful. Chief Surgeon Archibald Carrie Randolph examined Minnigerode, pronounced the wound mortal, and pinned a note to his coat written by Fitz Lee: “This is Captain Minnigerode of Gen. Fitz Lee’s staff. Take care of the body and inform his father Rev. Dr. Minnigerode of Richmond.” Charles Jr. was the son of Charles Minnigerode Sr., the Rector of St. Paul’s Church in Richmond, one of the most prominent and influential clergymen in the South. He ran away from home at age 16 and joined the Confederate army where he served as an aide-de-camp to General Fitzhugh Lee.
On April 9, 1865, Fitz Lee and his cavalry, unlike the rest of the Confederates, were not about to surrender to the Federals. They feared that if they surrendered they would not be allowed to keep their horses. As they turned to leave the battlefield Mennigerode was struck by a Minie ball in the back. Believing that his wound was mortal he was left on the battlefield to die as Lee and his men rode around the Union left flank for Lynchburg. As he lay there, he wrote a letter to his mother. “My Darling Mother. I am dying but I have fallen where I expected to fall. Our cause is defeated but I do not live to see the end of it. I suffer agonies, would to God I could die calmly but – In all things I must see His will be done. My greatest regret in leaving this world is to leave you and the rest of the dear ones. The younger children will be more comforting to you than I have been but none of them will love you more.” He pinned the letter to his chest and awaited his fate. Two Union soldiers passed by. The first, 1st Lieutenant Horace Evans, stated after the war “I rode up to one of General Lee’s staff officers who had been mortally wounded. He was lying on the ground having been shot in the forehead (actually a cut received in the fall from his horse) and breast. He was pulling his brains out and acting as if nothing was the matter with him. When all at once he said, It is a terrible thing to be killed on the last day of the war.” I cut off one of his buttons and have it now”. The second, Sergeant William W. Williams, 10th New York Cavalry, Co. D. stated after the war “As we went over the field where the engagement took place, I saw a man lying on the ground. I rode out to him and found one of the enemy. Someone had written his name on a slip of paper and placed it just inside of his jacket. The slip stated that he was a minister’s son. The young man said he was wounded through the spine and could not be moved, neither could he get well, and that he was in great pain. He begged me to shoot him and end his misery. I told him that I was to[o] tender-hearted to do that. Then he asked for the loan of my revolver, so that he could shoot himself. I had to refuse him again, and told him to keep up good courage, and that someone would come and tend to him..”
Shortly thereafter, a Federal surgeon named Norris Carter from the 100th PA, looking for wounded on the battlefield came upon him. Believing that he could be saved he transported him to the field hospital at the Coleman house (the XXIV Corps Flying Hospital). The bullet was removed and he was transferred to a hospital in Farmville where he wrote his father a letter on April 13th. “I was painfully wounded on Sunday, the ball entering below the shoulder on the right & lodging in the ribs on the left side, producing paralysis of the lower extremities, the wound is very painful, but the Drs. do not consider it necessarily mortal. I rested well last night & feel more comfortable this morning. I am well cared for. I suffer intensely, but my hopes of recovery are great. My life is in God’s hands & I feel that whatever he does will be for my good. All my friends are well I believe. I have heard of none being killed. If I live through this I will be a better man & devote my life more entirely to God’s service. Give my best love to all the dear ones at home. Tell Ma that I will live to be a good son to her. Kiss all the children for me. I feel thankful that you all at least are safe. Trust in God, He must be our Savior & Deliverer. Everybody is so good & kind to me. Tell Sittie to be thankful that she has Willie left to her. I have sent you many messages. All my friends thought I was killed, I fear you have heard it. I was left on the field for dead. I want to send for a minister but cannot. My own communion with God does me good. I know I am a great sinner but I trust God hears my prayers. If I do not see you again on Earth I feel that I shall meet you in heaven. Oh! The blessing vouchsafed us in our Savior’s death! I am in great pain & can write you no more now. Please come to me if you can. Love to all my dear friends. God bless you all, I hope to see you before long. Your Devoted, Charlie.”
He returned to Richmond on crutches. After the war he was able to recover enough function to walk again although with a severe limp. He married and had seven children, among them Lucy Minnigerode, founder of United States Public Health Services Nursing Corps, US Army Colonel Fitzhugh Lee Minnigerode, and the painter Marietta Minnigerode Andrews, who wrote the book “Memoirs of a Poor Relation”. In the selected passages of her book in the sources following this post she describes what her father was like after the war. Brian Bradshaw’s article also in the sources summarized some of what she said “her father returned from the war with a “marked limp[] … a restless, nervous manner,.. [and] an undercurrent of melancholy that deepened into tragedy as the years crawled on.” During the ensuing years, Andrews noted that Minnegrode’s active mind was prey to anxieties of many sorts, and on more than one occasion she sat up with him all night, reading to him as the atmosphere was tense.”
Ms. Andrews described the events of January 25, 1888, in her book “Father had wandered about restlessly and forlornly all day, upstairs and down, speaking to no one, had sat with his face buried in his transparent hands, had left the table abruptly without touching food and had climbed to the third floor where odds and ends were stored, things out of use, tumbled together. We did not know there was such a thing in the house, but he must have found it there. Then he lay himself down on the bed in the back room, next to the one in which we three women were. No one disturbed him. He had been miserably ill, one scheme after another had fallen through. We were glad that he could lie still, and that his poor brain could rest. Mammy had “Our Baby Girl” on her knees in the little anteroom, undressing her. Suddenly we heard a pistol shot. Mother and my sister hurried to the window and looked down into the darkening street. I stepped into the next room and took it out of his hand. In a moment the house was in mad confusion. Only he and I were very still. Cousin Bob, the doctor, came and said there was nothing to be done.” Her father had committed suicide and she had been the first to his side and removed the gun. Charlie Minniegerode the man who was left for dead at Appomattox, one of the last members of the Army of Northern Virginia wounded in the war, and saved by a Union surgeon, took his own life at age 42. Originally buried at “Oatlands” in Loudon County his grave was later moved to Sharon Cemetery in Middleburg, Virginia.
Interpretation on the battlefield
Remnants of the Coleman house- the field hospital location
Display at the Visitor’s Center at Appomattox Court House. This display was very difficult to photograph because of its yellow background and the glare from the glass.
Sources
Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Volume 113 Fall/Winter 2020- selected passages
Memoirs of a Poor Relation by Marietta Minnigerode Andrews (link)- selected passages
His obituary in the Charleston News and Courier, January 27, 1888, page 4.
Capt Charles Minnigerode, whose lamentable death (suicide) was announced yesterday, ran away from school in Richmond to enter the Confederate service, and served under the Southern flag from the beginning of the war until the very surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia. Indeed, he was the last wounded man in the Army of Northem Virginia at Appomattox. It was while he was riding along the lines, giving the order for the column to halt, because Gen (Robert E ) Lee had determined to ask for a suspension of hostilities, that he was shot across the body received injuries which left their mark upon him to the very end of his loving and indefatigable life. When Col Fitzhugh Lee, present Governor of Virginia, was appointed brigadier general, he selected Charles Minnigerode as his aide-de-camp. and retained him as a member his military family until the end of the long struggle. The relations between Gen (Fitz) Lee and his aide-decamp were of the most intimate and affectionate character. The regard in which he held him is both tenderly and worthily .expressed in his report of the operations of the Confederate Cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia, on their last campaign. Gen (Fitz) Lee says: “I deeply regret being obliged to mention the dangerous wounding of my aide-de-camp, Lieut Charles Minnigerode, Jr”. “One of the last minnie balls that whistled on its cruel errand, passed entirely through the upper part of his body. He fell by my side where for 3 long years, he had discharged his duties, with an affectionate fidelity never exceeded, a courage never surpassed. wonderfully passing without harm through many battles fought by the two principal armies in this state; for an impetuous spirit often carried him where the fire was hottest.” “He was left, at last writhing in great pain to the mercy of the victors upon the field of our last conflict. The rapid advancing lines prevented his removal, and as we turned away, the wet eyes and sorrowing hearts silently told us that he was no longer in our midst.” “Lieut Minnigerode combined the qualities of an aide-de-camp and a general officer in a remarkable degree. Personal services to me will be praised and remembered, whilst his intelligence, amiability, and brightness of disposition rendered him an object of endearment to all” Charles Minnigerode was a model of courage, and the pink buoyant courtesy besides. Boyish always in the freshness of his feelings, he was a man in everything that constitutes true manhood. Capt Minnigerode was most carefully nursed by the Federal surgeons, upon his capture, and afterwards, but was partly paralyzed for many months and never recovered altogether from the effect of the wound. There were few men in the army of Northern Virginia, who were better known than Charlie Minnigerode, was. To fewer still is it accorded to deserve confidence and trust and affection entirely as they were deserved by the battle-scarred soldier whose campaigns are ended, and who, like so many others, found that peace had its defeats no less heart-breaking than those of war. The obituary was believed to have been written by Francis Warrington Dawson, owner and editor of this newspaper, and also part of Fitz Lee’s staff during the war.
Next- The Last Cavalry Clash in Virginia- April 9, 1865