Charles W. Roberts

Who was Charles W. Roberts?

Charles Wentworth Roberts was a colonel in the Union Army during the American Civil War, who was awarded the rank of brevet brigadier general, United States Volunteers, in 1866, to rank from March 13, 1865. He was born in Old Town, Maine and graduated from Bowdoin College, but lived most of his life in nearby Bangor, Maine. He was the son of prominent local lumber merchant Amos M. Roberts. His father was the wealthiest man in Bangor according to the 1840 census.

Roberts enlisted as lieutenant colonel of the 2nd Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment in 1861, the first unit to leave Maine in response to President Abraham Lincoln's call for volunteers to suppress the rebellion after the fall of Fort Sumter. With the promotion of the regiment's colonel Charles Davis Jameson, USV, to brigadier general, Roberts became colonel of the regiment. Roberts had a horse shot out from under him at the Second Battle of Bull Run, when he commanded the 1st Brigade while General John H. Martindale suffered from typhoid fever. Roberts retired due to ill health in 1863 and was succeeded on January 10, 1863 by Colonel George Varney.