CHARLES REOPELL -- 48th and 117thINFANTRYMOVED TO MASSACHUSETTS FOR WORK - Octave Riopelle and his wife,Catherine Lauzon, left L'Assomption, Quebec, on the north shore of theSt. Lawrence River, about twenty-five miles northeast of Montreal, andcame to Redford to live in the mid-1850s. Charles, their first-born sonenlisted in the 117th Infantry in Plattsburgh about ten years later.Charles' Muster Roll Abstract shows that he was mustered in as a privateunder the name Reopel on March 3, 1865. He and a few other men were sentto join their regiment after the capture of Fort Fisher where theregiment had 92 casualties in January.Charles met up with the 117th while they were on the march up the CapeFear Peninsula on the way to join Sherman's Army on the way to theBennett Place where Johnston surrendered to Sherman.Charles signed up, under the name Reople, to serve for one year and whenthe 117th mustered out on June 8th, he was transferred to the 48thInfantry. The 48th stayed in the Raleigh area performing variousroutine military duties until September 1st when they were musteredout at Raleigh. In all, he was in the Army for six months of hisone-year term.In 1867, he went back to St. Jacques le Mineur, Quebec, nearL'Assomption and married Marguerite Clemence Tremblay. Their first twosons were born in Redford in 1868 and 1871 and then the family moved toSpringfield, MA, to work in the mills.Eleven more children were born to Charles and Margaret before he died inSpringfield in 1891 of asthma and acute bronchitis. He joined his son,Joseph, who had died two years before, in the St. Michael's Cemetery. Atfirst, he had a small military stone, and when Margaret died in 1926,all three were buried under a larger stone. The stone bears the nameReopell.
