CHARLES HAZEN FARNSWORTH96th INFANTRY and 16th and 3rd PROVISIONAL CAVALRYGOT THE MEDAL – Charles Hazen Farnsworth lasted for about nine months in the 96th Infantry. He mustered in as a private in March 1862 and was immediately appointed commissary sergeant. One of his Muster Roll Abstracts say he deserted. Other information says he was transferred to Field and Staff Operations.By August 1863, he was again in the military, this time as a second lieutenant and within a year was promoted to first lieutenant in the 16th Cavalry. For the next two years the regiment patrolled Washington and northern Virginia in Mosby’s Confederacy. Very few men got killed or injured, but the regiment had 144 men who went missing or were captured.After Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox on April 9th, President Lincoln was shot on April 14th and died the next day. A group of volunteers from the 16th chased and captured Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth. There is no indication that Charles was on that expedition.Jacob Schweitzer, who had just been breveted to Major General for his “war service” on March 13, 1865, was so thrilled with the 16th’s participation in the capture of Booth, that he gave “Lincoln Avenger” medals to several officers in the regiment whether they went on the ride or not. Charles got one of the medals and was very proud of it. It was even mentioned in his obituaries that appeared in many newspapers.Charles was transferred to the 3rd Provisional Cavalry on August 17, 1865, and was mustered out at Camp Barry in Washington, DC, on September 21st.After the war, he took his family westward and settled in Albert Lea, MN, on the Iowa border.On the Veterans Schedules of 1890, he declared he was “totally disabled from exposure in the camps on the Chickahominy.” In that same year, he started receiving his Invalid’s Pension. Thirty-six years later, he died in 1926 and was buried in Albert Lea.
