Charles W. Wall

Charles W. Wall was born May, 1, 1844, in the city of New York. When one year old his parents moved to Buffalo, where he received his early education. At fourteen he obtained employment in the distillery of George Truscott, and at sixteen he entered the Shepard Iron Works to learn the trade of machinist. Two years later, however, in 1862, Mr. Wall enlisted in Company C, 116th N.Y.V., serving with honor until the close of the war, being attached to the Army of the Gulf and the Army of Shenandoah, and was one of the four members of the company that were not wounded. Mr. Wall was one of the seventy-eight men from the 116th N.Y.V. Regiment (though there were a thousand men in the assault) who volunteered as a "forlorn hope" to assault Port Hudson, La., May 27, 1863. He also participated in the Red River campaign, and was with Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley. At the close of the war he went first to Mobile, Ala., and thence to Fulton, Ill., where he shipped as second engineer on the John C. Gault, towing wood barges on the Mississippi river. Leaving the Mississippi in 1867, he shipped at Buffalo, as second engineer on the propeller Arctic. During the ensuing years he was alternately afloat and ashore, entering the government service as chief engineer of the lighthouse tender Haze, in 1875, in which position he remained some fourteen years, then going ashore to take charge of the Thompson Houston Electric Light & Power Co., at Buffalo, returning to the lakes a couple of years later, in 1891. For a while he was chief of the Cuba, America and Mariska. In the spring of 1892 he was made chief of the Owego, which position he held for the seasons of 1892- 93-94-95-96-97, and on February 19, 1898, he was made superintendent of the Erie elevator of Buffalo, N.Y. Mr. Wall has been very successful in his work as engineer, and now holds one of the responsible positions with the Erie Railroad Company.

Mr. Wall was married in June, 1868, to Miss Mary A. Todd, of Buffalo. They have one daughter and reside in their own home, No. 39 Plymouth avenue, Buffalo, N.Y. Socially, our subject is a member of Hiram Lodge No. 105; F. & A.M., and of William Richardson Post No. 254, G.A.R., also of Camp 97, U.V.L. He is past commander of William Richardson Post. He is a member of the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association No. 1, of Buffalo.

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Volume I

This version of Volume II is based, with permission, on the work of the great volunteers at the Marine Captains Biographies site. To them goes the credit for reorganizing the content into some coherent order. The biographies in the original volume are in essentially random order.

Some of the transcription work was also done by Brendon Baillod, who maintains an excellent guide to Great Lakes Shipwreck Research.