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Ceremony will honor Medal of Honor winner

By GEORGE ROGERS
of The Gazette
Charles W. Dolloff is about to get the recognition denied him in life. Dolloff was a Civil War soldier who won the nation's highest military award for valor, the Medal of Honor, a fact ignored when he died in 1884. No mention was made of the medal in his obituary, or even of the fact that he was a veteran.

On Saturday, May 19, at 11 a.m. a ceremony will be held at his grave in Forest Cemetery on Patch Street. Conducting it will be Old Abe Camp No. 8, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW). The Sons of Union Veterans is an organization that honors the memory of the men who served the Union.

The ceremony will be a reenactment of the burial ritual of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Civil War Union veterans' organization. Participants will be in Civil War uniform.

Two of Dolloff's great-great-grandnephews are expected to attend, as well as Einar Ingman of Irma, who won the Medal of Honor in the Korean War, and State Rep. Marlin Schneider of Wisconsin Rapids.

Don Strube of Stevens Point, patriotic instructor of Old Abe Camp, has obtained a bronze military marker containing the words "Medal of Honor" for the Dolloff grave.

Dolloff was born in Parishville, N.Y., in 1844 and came to Stevens Point after the Civil War. He was a bridge foreman for the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie & Atlantic Railroad, and lost his life at the age of 40 in a fall from a bridge under construction near Cameron in northwestern Wisconsin. Dr. William Robbins of Chetek, who treated him, said Dolloff suffered broken ribs, internal injuries and a brain concussion. "During the time I had known him he was a sober and industrious man," said the doctor.

He was a Mason and was buried with Masonic honors - but apparently no military honors.

A year ago, Bob Powell of Metairie, La., who is researching the Medal of Honor, wrote a letter to a local Masonic organization, Evergreen Lodge No. 93, F&AM, asking for information about Dolloff. Strube had also been doing research on Dolloff. He was, in fact, researching all Civil War veterans buried in the county, and was surprised when he found that Dolloff had earned the Medal of Honor.

The city of Stevens Point maintains Forest Cemetery, but no Charles Dolloff is listed in the records. It turned out that his records are under "Dollefe," and that's how it's spelled on his grave marker.

(Powell, the Medal of Honor researcher, is convinced that this is a mistake, and that "Dolloff" is the correct spelling. His obituary spelled it "Dolloff" and that's how it is on the grave marker of his wife, Mary.)

When Dolloff was two years old his family moved to Vermont, and Powell said he was living there when he enlisted on Nov. 25, 1863 in the 1st Regiment, Vermont Heavy Artillery.

In May 1864, the regiment was reorganized as infantry, though retaining its artillery designation. It fought in major battles and took part in the Siege of Petersburg, Va., from December 1864 to April 1865.

"About 30 March 1865," Powell wrote, "General Grant's scouts reported that elements of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, under cover of the Confederate forces positioned in and around Petersburg, were executing a gradual withdrawal from Richmond. Three days later, on the morning of 2 April, Grant, hoping that Lee's withdrawal had sufficiently weakened the defenses of Petersburg, ordered a general attack all along the line. It was during this attack that Charley Dolloff distinguished himself.

"Along the line, volunteer artillerymen were selected to accompany advance elements in the initial attack. These men, upon entering the various Confederate forts and redoubts, were to take possession of the guns therein, which they would then turn against the enemy.

"In the Vermont Brigade's sector, the 1st Vermont furnished a large number of these volunteers and Charley Dolloff was among them. Advancing in the assault, Charley Dolloff was suddenly confronted by several members of the color guard of the 42d Mississippi Infantry. He lunged forward, seizing the regimental standard as two of the color guard fell wounded and the soldier carrying the Mississippi state flag retreated to within the fort. Charley passed the trophy to an officer and continued in the advance. (Other information says he captured 'a stand of flags.')
"Three weeks later, Charley Dolloff was called to regimental headquarters where he was given a small black box containing a Medal of Honor for the action at Petersburg. No fanfare, no commotion."

The Medal of Honor was sometimes handed out indiscriminately in the Civil War. In 1863, an entire Maine regiment - 864 men - received the medal for its defense of Washington, although most of the members saw no action there. In 1916 a review board was convened and it removed 911 men from the list of Medal of Honor winners. But Charley Dolloff was considered worthy of the award, and his name stayed on the list.

To illustrate the toll taken by the Civil War, 576 officers and enlisted men of Dolloff's regiment died during the conflict - 164 of battle wounds and 412 of disease.

Dolloff is the only Medal of Honor winner buried in Portage County. A county native, Clayton Slack, earned the medal in World War I but is buried in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C.

Dolloff was survived by his wife Mary, whose maiden name was Warner. They had no children. Mary Dolloff later moved to Amherst, and then to Waupaca.

As the widow of a veteran, Mary applied for a government pension in 1892, saying she had not remarried and was "without other means of support than her daily labor."

She apparently had some difficulty getting the pension because she couldn't come up with proof of her 1870 marriage. Record-keeping was loose in those days. Mary said she had made "repeated and diligent efforts" to get a copy of the record of their marriage "but no record was kept at the time" and the minister who had married the couple was dead.

Local acquaintances W.W. Mitchell, David W. Fitch, J.F. Wiley and John Phillips signed affidavits that they had always regarded Charles and Mary as a married couple, and back in Vermont Moses Currier filed another affidavit saying he had been a groomsman at the wedding.

So the pension was approved and Mary continued to draw it until her death in Waupaca in 1915. A final check, for $36, was returned to the government because she had died before it arrived.

At the May 19 ritual in Forest Cemetery, "We hope to have a rifle salute and perhaps a cannon salute at the end of the ceremony," said Strube. "Taps will be played by a Stevens Point Area Senior High senior, Dan Mitchell, and a daughter of one of the Sons, Angela Peters of Stevens Point. The son of Einar Ingman, Jimmy Ingman, will speak for his father and the other Medal of Honor recipients. We will also pass the flag to the two great-great-grandnephews at the ceremony."

The great-great-grandnephews, David and Bradley Hooper, are coming from Chicago and Pennsylvania.

Among others expected to attend are Fred Murphy, commander of the Wisconsin Department of SUVCW, and Randy Novak, commander of Old Abe Camp.

"The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War," said Strube, "is an organization with the mission to preserve the memory of the men who served the Union, to preserve that Union. We also work to preserve the memorials to them as well as their individual grave markers."

Strube said the organization is open to descendants of Union veterans and to those who have the same goals, and who have an interest in the Civil War.

"There are only a few members in the Stevens Point area," he said, "but we would like to have more so we can open a camp here in town. Our Old Abe Camp No. 8 started out in Oshkosh, but we now meet in Omro."



	Ceremony will honor Medal of Honor winner By GEORGE ROGERS of The Gazette Charles W. Dolloff is about to get the recognition denied him in life. Dolloff was a Civil War soldier who won the nation's highest military award for valor, the Medal of Honor, a fact ignored when he died in 1884. No mention was made of the medal in his obituary, or even of the fact that he was a veteran. On Saturday, May 19, at 11 a.m. a ceremony will be held at his grave in Forest Cemetery on Patch Street. Conducting it will be Old Abe Camp No. 8, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW). The Sons of Union Veterans is an organization that honors the memory of the men who served the Union. The ceremony will be a reenactment of the burial ritual of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Civil War Union veterans' organization. Participants will be in Civil War uniform. Two of Dolloff's great-great-grandnephews are expected to attend, as well as Einar Ingman of Irma, who won the Medal of Honor in the Korean War, and State Rep. Marlin Schneider of Wisconsin Rapids. Don Strube of Stevens Point, patriotic instructor of Old Abe Camp, has obtained a bronze military marker containing the words "Medal of Honor" for the Dolloff grave. Dolloff was born in Parishville, N.Y., in 1844 and came to Stevens Point after the Civil War. He was a bridge foreman for the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie & Atlantic Railroad, and lost his life at the age of 40 in a fall from a bridge under construction near Cameron in northwestern Wisconsin. Dr. William Robbins of Chetek, who treated him, said Dolloff suffered broken ribs, internal injuries and a brain concussion. "During the time I had known him he was a sober and industrious man," said the doctor. He was a Mason and was buried with Masonic honors - but apparently no military honors. A year ago, Bob Powell of Metairie, La., who is researching the Medal of Honor, wrote a letter to a local Masonic organization, Evergreen Lodge No. 93, F&AM, asking for information about Dolloff. Strube had also been doing research on Dolloff. He was, in fact, researching all Civil War veterans buried in the county, and was surprised when he found that Dolloff had earned the Medal of Honor. The city of Stevens Point maintains Forest Cemetery, but no Charles Dolloff is listed in the records. It turned out that his records are under "Dollefe," and that's how it's spelled on his grave marker. (Powell, the Medal of Honor researcher, is convinced that this is a mistake, and that "Dolloff" is the correct spelling. His obituary spelled it "Dolloff" and that's how it is on the grave marker of his wife, Mary.) When Dolloff was two years old his family moved to Vermont, and Powell said he was living there when he enlisted on Nov. 25, 1863 in the 1st Regiment, Vermont Heavy Artillery. In May 1864, the regiment was reorganized as infantry, though retaining its artillery designation. It fought in major battles and took part in the Siege of Petersburg, Va., from December 1864 to April 1865. "About 30 March 1865," Powell wrote, "General Grant's scouts reported that elements of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, under cover of the Confederate forces positioned in and around Petersburg, were executing a gradual withdrawal from Richmond. Three days later, on the morning of 2 April, Grant, hoping that Lee's withdrawal had sufficiently weakened the defenses of Petersburg, ordered a general attack all along the line. It was during this attack that Charley Dolloff distinguished himself. "Along the line, volunteer artillerymen were selected to accompany advance elements in the initial attack. These men, upon entering the various Confederate forts and redoubts, were to take possession of the guns therein, which they would then turn against the enemy. "In the Vermont Brigade's sector, the 1st Vermont furnished a large number of these volunteers and Charley Dolloff was among them. Advancing in the assault, Charley Dolloff was suddenly confronted by several members of the color guard of the 42d Mississippi Infantry. He lunged forward, seizing the regimental standard as two of the color guard fell wounded and the soldier carrying the Mississippi state flag retreated to within the fort. Charley passed the trophy to an officer and continued in the advance. (Other information says he captured 'a stand of flags.') "Three weeks later, Charley Dolloff was called to regimental headquarters where he was given a small black box containing a Medal of Honor for the action at Petersburg. No fanfare, no commotion." The Medal of Honor was sometimes handed out indiscriminately in the Civil War. In 1863, an entire Maine regiment - 864 men - received the medal for its defense of Washington, although most of the members saw no action there. In 1916 a review board was convened and it removed 911 men from the list of Medal of Honor winners. But Charley Dolloff was considered worthy of the award, and his name stayed on the list. To illustrate the toll taken by the Civil War, 576 officers and enlisted men of Dolloff's regiment died during the conflict - 164 of battle wounds and 412 of disease. Dolloff is the only Medal of Honor winner buried in Portage County. A county native, Clayton Slack, earned the medal in World War I but is buried in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. Dolloff was survived by his wife Mary, whose maiden name was Warner. They had no children. Mary Dolloff later moved to Amherst, and then to Waupaca. As the widow of a veteran, Mary applied for a government pension in 1892, saying she had not remarried and was "without other means of support than her daily labor." She apparently had some difficulty getting the pension because she couldn't come up with proof of her 1870 marriage. Record-keeping was loose in those days. Mary said she had made "repeated and diligent efforts" to get a copy of the record of their marriage "but no record was kept at the time" and the minister who had married the couple was dead. Local acquaintances W.W. Mitchell, David W. Fitch, J.F. Wiley and John Phillips signed affidavits that they had always regarded Charles and Mary as a married couple, and back in Vermont Moses Currier filed another affidavit saying he had been a groomsman at the wedding. So the pension was approved and Mary continued to draw it until her death in Waupaca in 1915. A final check, for $36, was returned to the government because she had died before it arrived. At the May 19 ritual in Forest Cemetery, "We hope to have a rifle salute and perhaps a cannon salute at the end of the ceremony," said Strube. "Taps will be played by a Stevens Point Area Senior High senior, Dan Mitchell, and a daughter of one of the Sons, Angela Peters of Stevens Point. The son of Einar Ingman, Jimmy Ingman, will speak for his father and the other Medal of Honor recipients. We will also pass the flag to the two great-great-grandnephews at the ceremony." The great-great-grandnephews, David and Bradley Hooper, are coming from Chicago and Pennsylvania. Among others expected to attend are Fred Murphy, commander of the Wisconsin Department of SUVCW, and Randy Novak, commander of Old Abe Camp. "The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War," said Strube, "is an organization with the mission to preserve the memory of the men who served the Union, to preserve that Union. We also work to preserve the memorials to them as well as their individual grave markers." Strube said the organization is open to descendants of Union veterans and to those who have the same goals, and who have an interest in the Civil War. "There are only a few members in the Stevens Point area," he said, "but we would like to have more so we can open a camp here in town. Our Old Abe Camp No. 8 started out in Oshkosh, but we now meet in Omro."