The Curious Case of Charles O. Case

Buried along the prominent ridgeline within Augusta’s Hillside Cemetery are Alexander and Susan Case. Sharing the gravestone with Alexander is their daughter Malissa and son Charles, the latter having been born on April 24, 1847 in Bracken County. By 1860 the Case family was living in Neville, Ohio, about a dozen miles downstream from Augusta, with Alexander working as a ferryman (eldest son John was living in Bracken County). John’s Civil War service was with the 15th Kentucky Infantry but as Charles was just fourteen when the war started, he was too young to serve. But by 1864, with the war dragging ever on, Charles would muster into the 23rd Ohio Infantry Regiment on July 28, 1864 as a private (Charles’ age being listed on the roster of the 23rd Ohio as twenty-one). He was a substitute, someone who served on behalf of another who had been most likely drafted and then paid someone else to serve in their place. Why Charles joined the 23rd is unknown as the 23rd was not a regiment from southern Ohio and not close to Neville. During the war the 23rd had within its ranks such notable figures as future presidents Rutherford B. Hayes and William McKinley, as well as future Supreme Court justice Stanley Matthews.

By the summer of 1864 the 23rd was serving in Virginia. As many readers know, it was disease and not combat that killed most of the men who died during the war, and Charles Case was no exception, having contracted typhoid fever and dying of the disease on September 23, 1864 at Frederick, Maryland. He was initially buried in Frederick’s Mt. Olivet Cemetery, but his body was exhumed and reburied in nearby Antietam National Cemetery, where his body yet still may rest.

It was not uncommon for families to honor their departed sons at a local cemetery with a cenotaph, defined as “a monument to someone buried elsewhere, especially one commemorating people who died in a war.” It was uncommon for a family to bring home an enlisted man for local burial. Most families could simply not afford to do so (the United States government did not provide this service during the war). So where does Charles O. Case rest, in Antietam National or Augusta Hillside? In Hillside the stone simply says “Died in Fredrick City, Maryland.” It is unclear if Charles is in Hillside, or if the stone is a cenotaph. This is the curious case of Charles O. Case.