Rank: Captain
Unit: 2d Cavalry
Date of birth: 1835
Hometown: New Jersey
Campaign: Civil War
Died: 9 June 1863
Age at death: 27 or 28
Cause of death: Killed in action
Location of fatality: Beverly Ford, Virginia
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Place of interment: Saint Peter’s Episcopal Churchyard in Morristown, New Jersey
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Note: Canfield was commissioned a 2d Lieutenant, 2d Dragoons, April 26, 1861.
Promoted to 1st Lieutenant, May 14, 1861.
Transferred to 2d Cavalry August 3, 1861.
Promoted to Captain, July 17, 1862.
Historian source: Regarding the “Great Cavalry Battle at Beverly’s Ford; Killed: Captain Charles W. Canfield, 2d United States Cavalry.”
Source: Brackett, Albert G. History of the United States Cavalry. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1865, p. 321.
OR, Series I, Vol. 27, Serial No. 43. P. 170, listed as killed in action. In a message to MG Hooker from Alfred Pleasonton at 12:30 pm on June 9, 1863, Pleasonton wrote, “Colonel Davis, Eighth New York, and Captain Canfield, Second U.S. Cavalry are killed.” OR, Series I, Vol. 27, Serial 43, p. 903.
Captain Canfield’s information below cited in the book:
Lieutenants C. McK. Leoser, R. Lennox, E. R. Wells, P. Quirk, and 21 enlisted men were wounded during this cavalry engagement. Six additional soldiers were listed as missing. 45 horses were wounded or killed.
Captain Canfield was appointed Second Lieutenant in 2d Cavalry, April 26, 1861. Served in Missouri under General Lyon, and with great credit at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, MO., August 10, 1861.
First Lieutenant in 2d Cavalry, June 1, 1862; en route from New Mexico to Washington with Company I, September to November 1862; Carlisle Barracks, PA., organized new Company M, November 1862 to March, 1863.
Captain in 2d Cavalry, July 17, 1862. Served with Regiment (Army of Potomac), and was killed at Battle of Beverly Ford, VA., June 9, 1863, whilst gallantly leading his squadron.
As soon as the Second was fairly in the field, it was directed to move with the Sixth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and support it in a charge; but while executing this order the regiment was recalled for an emergency, while two squadrons, one under Canfield and one under Rodenbough, were detached to the front. From this hour (it was about five in the morning) the fighting for the regiment commenced, and was kept up continuously for more than twelve hours; for it was not till after five in the evening of that day that the Second was withdrawn from the hottest part of the fight, and not till seven that we finally left the field.
Soon after being detached, and while fighting bravely at his post. Captain Canfield fell dead, pierced by a bullet. Young and brave, full of hopes for the future, and inspired with a determination to do his duty, he fell early in the action, gloriously, in the front of battle, dying a death which all soldiers, whether young or old, may well covet. His face was composed and calm. There was no trace of suffering, no mark of anguish there. He rests peacefully under the green sod, his memory crowned with laurels; and when the last trump shall sound, he can boldly take his place in the front rank of those who died fighting for their country.
Captain Canfield’s career and death noted in the book US, Heitman’s Register and Dictionary of the US Army, 1789-1903.