Charles P. Schneider, the last Civil War soldier buried in Grant County, Wis., died on May 26, 1942 at the age of 99 and is buried in Hillside Cemetery in Lancaster, Wis.

Schneider was born on May 25, 1843 in Fair Play in Grant County, Wis. His father, Frederick Schneider, was an emigrant from Germany, and his mother was Mary Geneva Schneider.

In 1862, when Schneider was 19 years old, he enlisted in Co. K, 47th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment and remained in the army until the end of the Civil War in 1865.

Schneider was made a corporal and named color bearer of his company, carrying the company's "colors" - the U.S. and Company K flag. This was a signal honor in the Civil War - and meant that Schneider carried the flags in line of battle, exposing himself to the concentrated fire of the Rebel enemy. Soldiers followed the colors as they marched across the battlefield, using the colors as a way to measure progress as they advanced against the enemy.

One county history noted that Charles Schneider "bore the regiment's (colors) safely and triumphantly home at the end of the war." Even though Schneider returned to Grant County with his health shattered by his war service, he went on to live until the age of 99.

In 1874, Schneider married Mary Magdalena Schneider, a native of Platteville, in Grant County. The couple farmed in South Lancaster and raised ten children - seven daughters and three sons.

With Schneider's death in 1942, the local newspaper noted that with Schneider's passing "the last of Grant County's gallant old "Boys in Blue" marched off the stage, leaving it to the boys in khaki."

Sources:
"Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette, Wisconsin: Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, and of Many of the Early Settled Families." Published by J.H. Beers & Company, 1901
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Last Updated: 14 June 2019