Charles Bachmann

Name: Charles Bachmann Company: D
Birth Date: about 1836 Place: Saxony (Germany)	Mustered In Date: September 3, 1864 Rank: Private Age: 28 Residence prior to military service: Saxony (Germany); Newark, New Jersey; Benton Township, Carver County, Minnesota Vocation prior to military service: architect, contracter, and builder
Death Date: September 5, 1889 Place: Young America, Carver County, Minnesota	Mustered Out Date: June 10, 1865 Rank: Private Age: 28-29 Residence following military service: Young America, Carver County, Minnesota Vocation following military service: architect, drug store owner

Charles Bachmann Biography

Charles W. (Karl) Bachmann was born about 1836 in Saxony (Germany). Charles and Ida immigrated to Newark, New Jersey about 1853-1854. A letter to Germany written by Bachmann from Easton, Pennsylvania, reported that he was able to find work as a carpenter in America and that he was working on cabins for a shipbuilder at the rate of one dollar a day. On September 4, 1856, he married Ida Clementine Mackenroth, born February 5, 1836, in Liebschwitz, Saxony. Prior to locating in Minnesota, Bachmann worked in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Two children born to Charles and Ida died in eastern Pennsylvania. About 1858-1861 they moved to Benton Township, Carver County, Minnesota.

Before the Civil War, Charles Bachmann was an architect, contracter, and builder. He also was a second lieutenant in the 28th regiment of the Minnesota State Militia.

Charles enlisted as a Private in Company D of the 5th Minnesota Regiment on September 3, 1864. He served as one of 12 orderlies to General A. J. Smith in the headquarters of the 16th Corps of the Army of Tennessee. On January 29, 1865, Charles wrote a letter to his sister and brother-in-law in Carver County, Minnesota, from Eastport, Mississippi. He wrote of flour rations and the lack of provisions due to the freezing of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Based on a conversation with a Confederate deserter, he also shared the belief that the war would end soon. Private Bachmann was mustered out, per order, on June 10, 1865, at Montgomery, Alabama.

Charles returned to Carver County, taking up residence in Young America in 1866. In 1870 he was awarded the job of designing the new Guardian Angels Church building. He served in the Minnesota legislature in 1873, sitting on the University and University Lands Committee. In 1882 he opened a new drug store which was managed by his son, Edward. In all, Charles and Ida had 10 or 11 children, including Charles (born about 1856 in Pennsylvania), Laura (born about 1861 in New York; married A. O. Malmgren), Edward (born May 28, 1863, in Benton Township, Carver County, Minnesota; married Hannah Mutschler of Perham, Otter Tail County, Minnesota), Robert (born about 1865 in Minnesota), Emil (born about 1868 in Minnesota), Ida (born about 1870 in Minnesota; married Frederick Gley of Young America), Selma (born June 15, 1872, in Minnesota), and Emma (born August 1872(?) in Minnesota).

Charles W. Bachmann died September 5, 1889, in Young America at age 62. Ida died January 4, 1913 in Ramsey County, Minnesota.

The Charles W. Bachmann and family papers are kept at the Minnesota Historical Library in St. Paul, Minnesota.

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