CHARLES HENRY WEATHERWAX -- 96th INFANTRYMIGRATED TO WISCONSIN IN 1870 - Charles Henry Weatherwax married a distant cousin, Catherine Weatherwax in 1860. A year later, he enlisted in the 96th Infantry in Peru to serve for three years, leaving his wife and widowed mother, Amy Beals Weatherwax, at home on the farm, his father having died in 1843.He was mustered into Captain Joseph Nichols' Company C on November 17, 1871, and the regiment left for Washington in March 1862 to continue their three years of service. The next month, the 96th the was based in at Fort Monroe getting ready to fight their way up the Virginia Peninsula with General McClellan. They fought until the end of July sustaining about 140 casualties in such engagements as Fair Oaks and the Seven Days' Battles.Starting in December 1862, they spent the next year in North Carolina to defend the coast and prevent privateers from bringing ships up the rivers to supply the Confederacy.As with many other regiments, the 96th was ordered to the Operations Before Petersburg and Richmond in early 1864. Between May and October, they suffered almost 300 casualties Cold Harbor, Chaffin's Farm and a second engagement at Fair Oaks - these three battles accounted for over 222 of them.Henry, as he liked to be called, decided not to re-enlist and went home at the end of his promised three years. By 1870, he and his family of four were settled in Clintonville, WI, where they stayed for the rest of their lives. Catherine died in 1901 and was buried in the Graceland Cemetery in Clintonville and Henry joined her there in 1901.
