Stansell, Charles

Charles Stansell

NPS

Quick Facts

Significance:

Private - 41st Ohio Infantry, Company G

Date of Birth:

1839

Place of Death:

Readyville, Tennessee

Date of Death:

April 1863

Place of Burial:

Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Cemetery Name:

Hazen Brigade Cemetery - Stones River National Cemetery

Charles Stansell's story tells us that soldiers faced many deadly dangers beyond the battlefield. Stansell was born around 1839 and enlisted as a private in the 41st Ohio Infantry, Company G on September 10, 1861 at 22 years old.

Stansell served as teamster driving the wagons carrying his regiment's supplies and equipment. During the Battle of Stones River Stansell used his empty wagon as an ambulance and earned notice for a daring ride when he drove from Murfreesboro to Nashville while being fired upon by Confederate troops to save the lives of two soldiers on January 1, 1863. 

Of the two wounded soldiers, one had been shot through the chest on December 31st, and the other had lost his foot to a bullet wound. Stansell drove the wagon eight miles as Confederate soldiers fired on them and followed them, despite the two soldiers in the wagon telling him to stop so they could surrender. One of Stansell's charges, Harold Gleve, wrote a notice of Stansell’s death, detailing his bravery on that fateful night.

“He was the one who drove us one the run that day for eight miles, and would not stop, but rushed on, heedless of our protestations and threats, over seemingly impassable objects, thus saving our team, our wagon, and our lives, all of which would have been sacrificed had we fallen into the hands of rebels, who pressed us so closely that the third wagon wheel in our rear was captured and burned. Riding his wheelhorse, he lashed the others into a mad run, and by his coolness and undaunted bravery, while musketballs were whizzing all around him, drove us safely through.” 

Gleve's account of the daring ride also shared the shocking manner of Stansell's demise. After “difficulty” between Stansell and another soldier at their camp in Readyville, Tennessee, he was hit on the head with a club. He developed erysipelas, a type of bacterial infection, and passed away after a few days in April 1863.

Stansell was buried in the Hazen Brigade Cemetery in plot HAZ-55 after the soldiers he saved appealed for his burial there.