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MAY 5, 1865, GREENSBORO PAROLE OF SERGEANT MAJOR CHARLES C. GREEN, FLANNER’S BATTERY LIGHT ARTILLERY- CO. F 13th NC LT ART BATTALION
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Rare Greensboro, NC, parole dated May 5, 1865, for Sergeant-Major Charles C. Green, of Flanner’s battery of light artillery. Excellent condition, part printed, and part filled out by hand, 3-1/2 inches by 8 inches, with minor, thin ink blot at upper right, no edge losses, minor shallow folds, and fully legible brown ink. Parole documents like this were important in enabling Confederate veterans to get home, reassuring about their future, and testimonials not only of military service, but that they had stuck it out to the end. This is a scarce form, issued in North Carolina using a formulation invoking Grant’s terms to Lee at Appomattox in April. Initial negotiations between Sherman and Johnston produced terms that were not only regarded as too generous but appeared to take up political rather than purely military matters, and with the assassination of Lincoln were going to go nowhere.
As printed the text, headed “Greensboro, North Carolina, / ____ 1865,” reads: “In accordance with the terms of the Surrender of General Lee, Commanding Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to Lieutenant-General Grant, commanding United States Army, ___ has given his solemn Parole of honor not to take up arms against the Government or in any way give aid or comfort to the enemies of the United States until properly exchanged; and is permitted to return to his home, not to be disturbed by the United States authorities so long as he observe this Parole and obey the laws in force where he may reside.”
This was filled out with the date at top and for “Charles C. Green Sergt. Maj. Flanner Lt. Artillery” and is signed at lower left by “John L. Dow / Capt & P.M.” and officer of the 112th Illinois acting as Provost Marshal on the 23rd Army Corps staff, and at right, remarkably, by Green himself, with his rank as Sergeant Major, but the word “commanding” crossed out. Green had been promoted to Sergeant Major on Nov. 20, 1863, after Flanner’s battery was formally redesignated, first on their Sept-Oct 1863 rolls, as Co. H, 3rd Regiment NC Artillery (40th Regiment State Troops,) and then, immediately after, as of Nov. 4, 1863, as Company F, 13th Battalion NC Light Artillery. Both were more or less administrative re-assignments rather than physical transfers, with neither the regiment or battalion ever assembled in one place and few of the companies serving together.
Green’s promotion to Sergeant Major would thus reflect a battalion or regimental posting as senior NCO, but he remained with his old battery in the Army of Northern Virginia at least through December 1864, after which there are no muster roll summary slips in his service file. The battery surrendered at Appomattox with 3 officers and 26 men. Whether Green had been detached in early 1865 to serve with companies from 13th Battalion assigned to Johnston’s forces or made his way to North Carolina on his own rather than surrender at Appomattox is unclear. That he signs his own parole, however, would seem to indicate he was on his own at least by that point.
Charles Chapman Green was born in Craven County, NC, and was a painter there when he enlisted “for the war” at age 16, on Jan. 20, 1862, mustering in as a sergeant in “Capt. Alexander C. Latham’s Co. (Branch Artillery) North Carolina Volunteers.” (After Latham’s resignation in September 1863 it shows up also as Potts’ Battery.) Green was promoted to 1st Sergeant when the battery was redesignated as part of the 3rd NC Artillery and then to Sergeant Major shortly after it was redesignated again as part of the 13th Battalion NC Light Artillery. Muster rolls are incomplete, but his only recorded absence is a furlough from Feb. 14 to March 3, 1864.
The battery was extremely active, serving first in the Department of South Carolina and Georgia, but moving north in time serve with the Army of Northern Virginia, as part of Henry’s and Haskell’s battalions, beginning with Cedar Mountain, all the way up through Spotsylvania, Petersburg and Appomattox, seeing heavy action at Gettysburg, where they were in the artillery brigade of Hood’s division, (3 officers and 112 men, fielding 3 Napoleons, a 12-pd howitzers and 6-pd gun,) in the Bristoe Campaign, and Grant’s 1864 offensive where they were at Spotsylvania, Petersburg in the fighting at the Crater, Fort Harrison, the Darbytown Road, and other locations, finally taking part in the retreat to Appomattox, where it claimed to have fired the last shot.
After the war Green returned to New Bern and was a well-known druggist when he passed away there in August 1893, married, but with no offspring. This is a scarce parole, coming from a soldier with considerable service, and clearly well cared for and valued after the war. [sr][ph:L]
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