Captain Charles O. Patter, U.S.V.

Captain Charles O. Patter (Sixth Missouri Infantry, Veteran Volunteers,) was born in Easton, Pennsylvania, January 1, 1839, and at the age of twelve years was sent by his parents to be raised by Adam Follmer, at Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and to learn the mercantile business. At the age of eighteen he went west to Chicago, Illinois, and from there to Freeport, Illinois, where he still continued to follow the pursuit of clerking and selling goods. At the commencement of the late Civil War he was in St. Louis, Missouri, and, under the first call of President Lincoln, he and William Wolfe raised a company of volunteers and entered the service in the Sixth Regiment of Infantry from the State of Missouri, Company D. He served all through Missouri under General Lyon, who was killed at Springfield; after which he was appointed provost-marshal of the Fifth District of Missouri, head-quarters at Jefferson City, serving under General Totten, General Logan, and others, until he was ordered to join his regiment at Young's Point, Louisiana, which he did, and took an active part in the fighting and siege of Vicksburg,-the regiment being one of the Second Brigade, Second Division, Fifteenth Army Corps, commanded by the late General Logan, of Illinois. After the surrender of Vicksburg, this corps was ordered east to Mission Ridge, taking active part in that battle; it also was sent to the relief of Burnside, at Knoxville, Tennessee. Captain Patter marched to the sea with General Sherman, fighting from Resaca to Atlanta, and from there to Savannah, his company being one selected by General Hazen to charge Fort McAllister and open up communication to the sea. In all of the engagements mostly of the Fifteenth Army Corps, he took an active part, until wounded at Bentonville, North Carolina, through the right breast. From there he was sent to David's Island, New York, until his recovery, after which he joined his command at Washington City, in time for the grand review of the Army of the Tennessee. After this he was sent to Little Rock, Arkansas, until the close of the war, and from there to St. Louis, Missouri, and mustered out, having served from the firing of the first gun until the Rebellion was crushed out.

Captain Patter was married, after the war, to Miss Mary Toomy, of Chicago, Illinois; has three sons, Charles, Willie, and Earl; also one daughter, Maud. He has been a member of the City Council of Cairo, Illinois, for eighteen years, several years having no opposition from his ward.

He was commissioned a delegate to the Nicaragua Canal Convention, by Governor Jos. Fifer, of Illinois, November 17, 1892, to take place at New Orleans, Louisiana, November 30, 1892; also was elected mayor of Cairo by unanimous vote of the City Council, to serve the unexpired term of the late Mayor Thomas W. Halliday, deceased, which would have expired May 1, 1892.

Having been raised a poor boy, by his close attention to business is now ranked with the prosperous men of Southern Illinois. His motto has been "To do what was required, well," and by this rule has made his name and place in this section of the State. He was one of the men who captured Camp Jackson and helped save Missouri from going out of the Union.

He is now president of the New York Store Mercantile Company, a new corporation started in June, 1891. He was also a delegate to the National Republican Convention, and is one of the Old Guard of 306, who stood by General Grant to the end of that great struggle.

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
• Patter Surname

 

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