CHARLIE IN THE CIVIL WAR

C. E. Conrad, ca. 1867.
Earliest known photograph.
Digital restoration ©2012 by Johanna L. Hardesty

CHARLES EDWARD CONRAD was born to James Warren Conrad and Maria Salina Ashby on 20 May 1850 on their modest plantation, Wapping, near Front Royal, Warren County, Virginia. The old home, now called Wapping Farm, still exists today. Charlie was the third of what would eventually total thirteen children, and did not spend much time at Wapping, as in 1853, his father sold the property[1], purchasing a larger place on the Shenandoah and nearer to Maryland, where Charlie spent the rest of his childhood until the advent of the Civil War. And that is about as much as we know about that period of his life.

When the War began, Charlie was ten years old. Later, Charlie joined the 43rd Battalion, Virginia Cavalry, the famed Mosby’s Rangers. There is no record of exactly when Charlie and his older brother George (a. k. a. W. G. Conrad) joined, but it is known that they were in Company C[3], and this company was organized 7 December, 1863 at Rectortown[4]. The records indicate Charlie was 14 when he enlisted in 1865[4.5], but his parole papers show he was also on a receipt roll for clothing for the 4th quarter of 1864. In summary, we don't know precisely when he enlisted.

Mosby’s command never surrendered to the Union army. Col. Mosby disbanded his unit on April 21, 1865 at Salem, Fauquier County, Virginia, and the men simply went their own way, although many of them went with Col. Samuel Chapman to Winchester to take advantage of the terms offered the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia at Lee’s surrender and which were also extended to any of Mosby’s men who wished to come in. Charlie and George (W. G.) were among those who were with Chapman, and on 22 April 1865, not quite a month before his 15th birthday, at Winchester, Virginia, Charles Edward Conrad gave his parole[5] and was allowed to return home. His brother also gave his parole at that time and accompanied him home. His record gives his age as 14 at the time of his parole, his height as 5' 8", with light complexion, and dark hair and eyes.

Of Charlie’s specific activities during the war, we know for certain only that he was with Company C and participated in many of their actions. While a list of actions in which Mosby's command was involved  is available, we cannot say for certain which of them involved Charlie.

Most authorities agree that Charlie was the youngest to have enlisted with Mosby[5]. He would have been about the same age as another youngster, Walter W. Faulkner[6]. By the official records, he certainly was the youngest man of the unit when the war ended. Charlie’s position as the youngest is further attested in Col. Chapman’s assessment of Charlie.[7]

Two things for certain that came out his experiences in this dreadful conflict:  he became a crack pistol shot and ever after had an absolute dread of war.

— Richard L. Hardesty, 9/17/22

Acknowledgements:  My thanks to Ken Robison of Great Falls/Ft. Benton, Montana, for bringing to my attention some additional source material and for discussions of Charlie's enlistment details.
    The digital restoration at the head of this article is based on a scratched and bent tintype in the Conrad/Stanford collection in the archives at the Mansfield Library, University of Montana, Missoula. The story of the discovery of this photo will be told at later time. 

FOOTNOTES

1.    Hale, Laura Virginia. Four Valiant Years in the Lower Shenandoah Valley 1861-1865, Royal, VA: Hathaway, 1986 and others. The Wapping property was originally owned by Justice John Marshall and his brother James prior to 1810. James Conrad purchased it from its third owner, Robert Taylor, in 1831 and in 1853 sold it to John Hansborough who owned it until 1893. 

2.    He was born George William Conrad and it is under this name that he appears in the censuses for 1850 and 1860. He does not appear as William G. (W. G.) until the 1870 U. S. Census for Ft. Benton. His maternal grandfather was named George William Ashby, and it would appear that he was named for that august gentleman.

3.   War Department Collection of Confederate Records, Index to Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations From the State of Virginia. Publication M382 roll 12 and National Archives, Record Group 109, Compiled Service Records of Mosby’s Regiment.

4.    Peter A. Brown (Mosby’s Fighting Parson: The life and times of Sam Chapman. Westminster, MD: Willow Bend Books, 2001, p 101) has Charley in Co. G, but it should be noted that Williamson lists both G. W. and Charlie (rather oddly as “M. O. Conrad”) in Co. C. (Williamson, James Joseph. Mosby’s Rangers: A Record of the operations of the Forty-third battalion Virginia cavalry..... NY: Ralph B. Kenyon, 1896, p. 478), as do the remaining official records cited above.

4.5    U.S., Confederate Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865, (1865 enlistment date).

5.     See Note 3.

6.    Faulkner enlisted in July of 1864 at the age of fourteen. Jeffry Wert, in his book, Mosby’s Rangers (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1991, p. 75) considers Faulkner the youngest of Mosby’s Men, but that all depends on when Charlie actually enlisted.

7.    I here give the full text of that speech, although I have managed to temporarily mislay the source. It reads almost as a eulogy, which, in a sense, it was, as Charlie had passed on into the world and out from among them and never attended any of the reunions. The occasion was the second reunion of Mosby’s command at Marshall (Salem), Va., August 14, 1895 (emphasis added):

 “Comrades : In the sweetest songs there are minor chords of sadness. Amid the joys of these reunions we are reminded that 

“To the Past go more faces, 
Every year; 
Come no new ones in their places, 
Every year.” 

There can be no recruits to our brotherhood. It has been long since the last initiation was had under the blue light of burning powder and to the weird music of the battle’s roar; and the ceremony can never be repeated. The years will not be many until two or three of us, perhaps, will meet and part — and Mosby’s Command will be a thing of history. 

It is fitting then that we should here recall those who have passed away from us into the world or the realm of spirits. 

I do not know what excellences of a soldier Charlie did not possess. He was the youngest, strongest, and most vigorous of us, only a boy, but he filled a man’s place up full. He was brave without being rash, modest and retiring, but always ready; and his courage was of that high order which could quietly wait in the thick of dangers until the moment for action came and then would go the limit of duty. He was too sensible to be indifferent to danger, and too honest to affect bravado; but with a thorough consciousness of all that it meant, he would ride unflinchingly up to the very face of death. But I need not recall the characteristics nor recount the deeds which won him a foremost place in your esteem, my comrades — yourselves worthy judges of soldierly qualities. No more can be said for him, in this regard, than that you admired and loved him.

Our paths of life drifted far apart. But you and I follow with glowing eyes his strong and steadily upward course in his chosen walk, and whenever we hear of the courage and success with which he has fought the powers of the world, as he had fought other foes by our side, our pulses quicken and our bosoms swell with pride, as we claim, “He was a Mosby man.” 

As we pass down the western slope of life together and the hardness, bred of manhood's struggles and antagonisms, softens under the rays of the setting sun, the associations of early days reassert their strength to draw us into the paths of peace.

I do not know of any of all our number who more brilliantly than he has illustrated the truth that the same qualities of intelligence, nerve, and force of character which were essential to distinction in our ranks, insured influence in civil life. The world has acknowledged Charlie as one of the best. Let us hold him in proud and loving remembrance as one of the best of us. 

That last sentence makes it sound as if Charlie had died, but that is but a little poetic license.