Back to: [Biographies Page]  [Photos Page] [Vets Page]  [History of ABEL Family]

Charles Abel  GAR CoC 53rd ILL VOL INF Private

53rd Illinois Infantry
Regiment History

Charles Abel was born May 14, 1843, in Litchfield Township, Medina County, Ohio, and was a farmer by occupation. He volunteered for duty in the Civil War on the Fourth day of January, 1862, and served with the Grand Army of the Republic, Co. C, 53rd Illinois Volunteer Infantry as a Private.

According to his military records, Charles was a small man of 5'4", with a fair complexion, light brown hair, and blue eyes and weighed 135 pounds.

While engaging in the Battle of Matamora along the Big Hatchie River in Mississippi, Charles was wounded resulting in a hospital stay at Bolivar, Tennessee, October 5, 1862. A total of 500 men from the North were either killed or wounded. and 400 Confederates were killed and wounded.

In February of 1864, fighting a cold on a steamboat traveling from Cairo up the Ohio River, near the Tennessee border, Charles contracted Rheumatism, which haunted him for the rest of his life, never fully recovering from this illness.

Also, according to his military records, at Atlanta, in the state of Georgia, in the month of July, 1864, Charles was attacked with heart disease. He was never treated at a hospital but rather in camp and was repeatedly relieved from duty due to the combined effects of these diseases.

Frequently he was detailed on extra duty at Gen. Hurlbut's Headquarters. Charles was discharged near Louisville, Kentucky on the 22nd of July, 1865.

Less than a month later, Charles married his childhood sweetheart, Anna M. Tayler, on August 9th, 1865 at Ottowa, Illinois, at the residence of Miss Lizzie Stanley. Charles was 21 and Annie was 18 years of age. Annie and Charles had known each other as school children and had grown up together in the same town, attending the same school.

On June 14th, 1893, Charles died of his Rheumatism and heart disease, and is buried at Hooper Cemetery near Hooper, Nebraska.