Major Charles A. Appel, U.S.V.

Major Charles A. Appel (Ninth Pennsylvania Cavalry) has a Revolutionary ancestry. He was born in Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, May 12, 1836. He received his academic education in the academy of Rev. John Vandeveer, in Faston, and entered Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, in October, 1851, and graduated there from in July, 1855, an honor man in the class.

In 1861 he was editor and part owner of the Lehigh Register, published in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

He recruited part of Company A, Ninth Regiment Pennsylvania Cavalry, in Allentown, and was mustered into the United States service as lieutenant in October, 1861, at Camp Cameron, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. In April, 1862, he was made captain Company F, same regiment, and in 1864 was mustered as major of the regiment, not being able to be mustered prior to that time, because the battalion to which he was assigned lacked the requisite number of men.

In the fall of 1861 he went with his regiment to Louisville, Kentucky. During the winter of 1861-62 he was with the movement on Mumfordsville and Bowling Green, Kentucky, and entered Nashville, Tennessee, with Buell's army. He was engaged in the battle of Perryville, Kentucky, and in the winter of 1862-63 was in the raid into East Tennessee, known as "Carter's Raid;" was in command of the courier line between Franklin, Tennessee, and Triune; was in the battle of Chickamauga, and after that battle went with his regiment back to Murfreesborough, and thence across the mountains to Knoxville, Tennessee, to the relief of General Burnside. In crossing the mountains he had the advance in command of his battalion, and had considerable fun with bushwhackers, particularly the notorious Champ Ferguson. He was in the cavalry fights at Strawberry Plains, New Market, Dandridge, Fair Garden, etc.

He became associated with M. A. McGowan and Jos. Marshall as contractor and builder, their line of business being mostly government work. The following public buildings have been erected either wholly or in part under his personal supervision: United States Post-offices at Austin, Texas; Kansas City, Missouri; Memphis, Tennessee; Jackson, Tennessee; Oxford, Mississippi; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; and Eastport, Maine. Also the Life-Saving Stations at South Haven, Whitehall, Pentwater, and Frankfort, Michigan.

In 1870 he married Mary C., daughter of Chas. W. Fisher, and sister of Thos. J. Fisher, of Washington, D. C. He has one son, Charles A. Appel, Jr.

Source: Officers of the Volunteer Army and Navy who served in the Civil War, published by L.R. Hamersly & Co., 1893, 419 pgs.

Related Links:

• Civil War Records
• Civil War Microfilm at the National Archives
• Appel Surname

 

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