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Casualty Info
Home Town Annapolis, Maryland
Casualty Date Apr 19, 1864
Cause KIA-Died of Wounds
Reason Other Explosive Device
Location United States
Conflict Civil War
Location of Interment U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery and Columbarium (VLM) - Annapolis, Maryland
Description The American Civil War was an internal conflict fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of America. The Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U.S. history.
Among the 34 U.S. states in February 1861, seven Southern slave states individually declared their secession from the U.S. to form the Confederate States of America. War broke out in April 1861 when Confederates attacked the U.S. fortress of Fort Sumter. The Confederacy grew to include eleven states; it claimed two more states, the Indian Territory, and the southern portions of the western territories of Arizona and New Mexico (called Confederate Arizona). The Confederacy was never diplomatically recognized by the United States government nor by any foreign country. The states that remained loyal, including border states where slavery was legal, were known as the Union or the North. The war ended with the surrender of all the Confederate armies and the dissolution of the Confederate government in the spring of 1865.
The war had its origin in the factious issue of slavery, especially the extension of slavery into the western territories. Four years of intense combat left 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers dead, a higher number than the number of American military deaths in World War I and World War II combined, and much of the South's infrastructure was destroyed. The Confederacy collapsed and 4 million slaves were freed (most of them by Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation). The Reconstruction Era (1863–1877) overlapped and followed the war, with the process of restoring national unity, strengthening the national government, and granting civil rights to freed slaves throughout the country.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
April / 1861
To Month/Year
April / 1865
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
Memories Feb 1862 USS Delaware (Cdr Rowan) and USS Commodore Perry (Lt Flusser) engage Confederate troops at Winton, NC on the Chowan River. On the 20th Rowan's force covers the landing of Federal troops, who burn the town to the ground (with the exception of a church and several homes belonging to Union sympathizers). This was the first burning of a town anywhere during the Civil War. The destruction evoked protests in the North that resulted in the denial of medals the offending regiment had earned for earlier action and disgrace for its leader.
June 1862 Lt Charles Flusser leads USS Commodore Perry, Shawsheen, and Ceres in a joint expedition up the Roanoke to Hamilton, NC, where they capture the steamer Wilson.
July 1862 USS Commodore Pen (Lt Flusser), USS Shawsheen (Actg Master Woodward), and USS Ceres (Actg Master John MacDiarmid) land a field piece and force of soldiers and sailors at Hamilton, NC on the Roanoke River and capture steamer Wilson. MoH: J. Kelley, A. Hand
Oct. 1862 In response to an Army request for support in a planned attack on Confederate forces gathering at Franklin, VA, USS Commodore Perry, Hunchback, and Whitehead under Lt Cdr Flusser engage rebel troops on the Blackwater River for six hours. Obstructions planted in the river keep the squadron from reaching Franklin and Flusser orders the gunboats to return downstream when Confederates began felling trees to block the channel behind them. MoH: T. Barton, J. Breen, D. Lakin, A. Peterson, E. Smith, J. Williams
Jan. 1863 Lt Cdr Charles W. Flusser lands men from USS Commodore Perry to accompany soldiers on an expedition to Hertford, NC which destroys two bridges over the Perquimans River, interdicting the flow of supplies from the Chowan River region to Richmond.
Jan. 1864 Lt Cdr Charles W. Flusser leads an expedition of 40 sailors and 350 soldiers inland from the Roanoke River, NC, and occupies the town of Windsor for several hours.
March 1864 At the request of Brigadier Genl Henry W. Wessells, Lt Cdr Flusser in double-ender USS Southfield with tinclad USS Whitehead provides covering fire that allows Army steamer Bombshell to escape a rebel battery that had cut her off in the Chowan River above Petty Shore, NC.
April 1864 Confederate troops launch a sustained land attack on Plymouth, NC, which is driven back with the help of Union gunboats Southfield and Miami under Lt Cdr Flusser.
LtCdr. Charles Williamson FLUSSER was killed in action on 19 April 1864 in the engagement between Miami and the Confederate ironclad Albemarle.