254 Nortru Carotina Troops, 1861-’65.

removal, was left in Winchester, where his wounds terminated

fatally.

COLONEL C. C. BLACKNALL.

Charles Christopher Blacknall was born in Granville
County, N. C., December 4, 1830.

His grandfather, Thomas Blacknall, of Virginia, was, at
16, a soldier under Washington. His grandfather’s grand-
father, the “Reverend John Blacknall, Gent’n,” though later
of Virginia, was one of the first Episcopal clergymen to of-
ficiate in North Carolina. Thence through English country
gentlemen of record, his lineage runs back to the Blacknalls
of Wing, Buckinghamshire, whose armorial bearings were
two centuries old when Columbus sailed to discover the new
world.

Charles Blacknall was educated for the law, but never prac-
ticed. When the war came he promptly raised and
was elected Captain of the Granville Rifles, which became
Company G, of the Thirteenth, later the Twenty-third North
Carolina Regiment. 15 June, 1862, he was commissioned
Major and 15 August, 1863, Colonel of the regiment.

His gallantry at Yorktown, Williamsburg, Seven Pines,
Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, and his severe wounds at
Seven Pines and Gettysburg and his capture, escape, and re-
capture after the latter battle; have alreatly been told in the
body of the sketch. Severe illness contracted while on duty
in the Chickahominy swamps prostrated him and kept him
out of the Sharpsburg campaign. Only disabling wounds or
prison bars kept him from participating in all battles in
which his command engaged up to his death.

Few, if any, North Carolinians had a more romantic or
eventful military career than the subject of this sketch. Soon
after his recapture on the retreat from Gettysburg and while
imprisoned at Fort McHenry, near Baltimore, lots were drawn
to select a Confederate officer to be hung in retaliation for a
Federal officer about to be executed in Richmond as a spy.
Colonel Blacknall drew the black bean. Though finally

spared, it was only after a long suspense.

Then followed a rigorous imprisonment at Johnston’s

TwWENTy-THIRD REGIMENT. 255

Island, Lake Erie, during the severe winter of 1863-64.
Driven to desperation by cold and hunger the eighteen hun-
dred Confederate officers there imprisoned, planned an escape
to Canada. Colonel Blacknall, well known to be ever for-
ward in the charge, was elected one of the officers to lead the
forlorn hope in the assault with brick-bats against the guards
on the wall that encircled the prison. But there was in their
midst a Federal spy, disguised as a Confederate officer.
Their plans were betrayed and the guards so heavily rein-
forced, that men even as desperate as they were, could see
no hope of success.

His name standing alphabetically near the head of the list,
he was paroled in March, 1864, before the cartel was
stopped. Exchanged early in May, he started for his com-
mand the day that the Federals cut the Weldon road at Stony
Creek.

Apprised of this on reaching Weldon, he returned to Kit-
trell, his home, and without arousing his family, took horse
at midnight and hastened to Petersburg. Arriving there, he
was placed in command of a brigade, but ordered back to his
regiment before it went with Early’s force to the Valley.

Tn all the arduous marching and counter marching, and in
the battles and countless skirmishes of this strenuous cam-
paign, Colonel Blacknall took an active part till mortally
wounded early on September 19, 1864. On the evening of
the 18th, his regiment was placed on outpost duty on the Ber-
ryville pike, two or three miles east of Winchester. The
writer of this (V. E. Turner) spent that night with him
under a simple fly tent. At dawn on the 19th, sharp firing
on his advanced picket line told that the expected attack had
begun. At this Colonel Blacknall rode hastily to the front
to direct his regiment in the encounter. He remained mount-
ed and held his small force pluckily against the heavy ad-
vancing columns of the enemy. In the midst of this and
while being borne back by overwhelming superiority of num-
bers, but contesting every inch, Colonel Blacknall received a
severe and acutely painful wound in the ankle, and was car-
ried back to Winchester. The surgeons disagreed as to the
necessity of amputating the foot to save his life, and his wish