Charles Champion Gilbert
Charles Champion Gilbert | |
|---|---|
 Charles C. Gilbert | |
| Allegiance | United States of America |
| Years of service | 1846–86 |
| Rank | Colonel, Acting Major General |
| Commands | III Corps, Army of the Ohio |
| Battles/wars | Mexican-American War American Civil War |
Charles Champion Gilbert (March 1, 1822 – January 17, 1903) was a U.S. Army officer during the Mexican-American War and the American Civil War.
Gilbert was born in Zanesville, Ohio. He graduated from West Point in the famed Class of 1846, finishing 21st out of 59 students.[1] His classmates included twenty future Civil War generals, including George B. McClellan, Stonewall Jackson, George Stoneman, Darius N. Couch, and George Pickett. He served in Veracruz and Mexico City during the Mexican-American War before serving in Texas for two years. He returned to West Point in 1850 as an instructor, then served on the Western frontier.
Shortly after the Civil War started, Gilbert was appointed captain in the 1st U.S. Infantry and fought in the Battle of Wilson's Creek, where he was wounded. He was appointed inspector general in the Army of the Ohio during the Battle of Shiloh and the Siege of Corinth. During the Confederate Heartland Offensive, William "Bull" Nelson's Army of Kentucky was added to the Army of the Ohio, becoming its III Corps. When Nelson was murdered in late September, all other ranking officers in the army refused the appointment to corps command. Therefore, Maj. Gen. Horatio G. Wright, commander of the Department of the Ohio, promoted Gilbert, without legal authority, from captain to "acting" major general; Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell, commanding the Army of the Ohio, assigned the acting major general to command the corps.[2] A week later, he was engaged in the Battle of Perryville. His troops were successful in checking the last of the Confederate attacks and driving a Confederate brigade back through Perryville, but Gilbert was criticized for his slow action in battle and he was widely despised by the men in his corps for his actions as a martinet.[3] He was legally appointed brigadier general, backdated to September 9, 1862, but this appointment was not confirmed by the Senate and it expired on March 4, 1863. Despite this he was appointed major in the 19th U.S. Infantry and brevetted colonel in the regular army, holding the administrative post of Assistant Provost Marshal General in Hartford, Connecticut, for the remainder of the war.[1]
Gilbert served on the frontier until he retired in 1886. He died in Baltimore, Maryland, and was buried in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky. He was the brother of Union Brig. Gen. Samuel A. Gilbert.
References
- Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
- Noe, Kenneth W., Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle, University Press of Kentucky, 2001, ISBN 978-0-8131-2209-0.