Charles A. Coolidge (general)
Encyclopedia
Charles Austin Coolidge, Jr. (July 19, 1844 - June 1, 1926) was a United States Army
soldier who served in the American Civil War, the American West, Spanish-American War, and in Asia before retiring in 1903 as a brigadier general.
in Northfield, Vermont
where he received the degree of B.S. Later he received a medical (MD) degree from the Wooster Medical College in in Wooster, Ohio
. He married Sophie Wager Lowry, daughter of Philip Lowry and Caroline Tilghman of Philadelphia, on 19 November 1867 at Tallahassee, Florida
.
. The Seventh at that time was on duty in New York, having just come from Gettysburg for the draft riots. Following a month of service at City Point, Virginia, the regiment remained at New York harbor until the end of the war. The regiment was then sent to Florida for the next five years.
After his unit was transferred to the American West in 1870, Lieutenant Coolidge was a member of Captain Brown’s command which opposed Chief Joseph’s
Nez Percé Indians at Lolo Pass
. He was wounded in this campaign at the Battle of the Big Hole
on August 9, 1877. Later when appointed a Captain, he served in Montana, Dakota Territory, Fort Snelling
, Fort D.A. Russell (Wyoming)
, Rock Springs, Wyoming
, and Fort Logan near Denver, Colorado
.
At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War
in April 1898, Coolidge attained the rank of Major in the Seventh Infantry Regiment
. He participated in the capture of El Caney
on July 1, 1898 and the bombardment of Santiago de Cuba
.
Coolidge was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel of the Ninth Infantry Regiment on May 16, 1899, and he took part in the engagements at Zapote Bridge and Tarlac, Philippine Islands
. In June 1900 the regiment was ordered to China as part of the China Relief Expedition
. He assumed command following the death of Colonel Emerson C. Liscum during the Boxer Rebellion
as part of the Allies
relief of the Legation
at Tianjin
from June to July 1900. After the departure of Colonel Robert L. Meade of the Marines from China on July 26, 1900, Lieutenant Colonel Coolidge was placed in command of the American forces in China until the arrival of General Adna Chaffee
in early August 1900. Also during the Boxer Rebellion on August 14, 1900 he led the first American force to enter the Forbidden City
in Beijing
.
In 1901 Coolidge was named Colonel of the Seventh Infantry Regiment, transferred to the Presidio of San Francisco
, where he retired August 8, 1903 as a Brigadier General.
, Sons of the American Revolution
and the Spanish War Society
. He was a Councilor of the Boy Scouts of America
and a President of the American Philatelic Society
. He was admitted to the Detroit Post of the GAR
in 1906, elected Junior Commander two years later and named Commander in 1912. Brigadier General Charles Austin Coolidge died June 2, 1926 at Grace Hospital in Detroit, Michigan in his eighty-first year. He had been ill since May 19, 1926 when he suffered a stroke while attending the Lloyd Tilghman
monument unveiling at Vicksburg, Mississippi
. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery
.
, and a cousin of President Coolidge
. His grandfather Henry Rice
was a member of the Boston City Council and was a Massachusetts state legislator. He was also a descendant of Edmund Rice
another early immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony
as follows:
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
soldier who served in the American Civil War, the American West, Spanish-American War, and in Asia before retiring in 1903 as a brigadier general.
Early life, education & marriage
Charles Austin Coolidge, Jr. was born on July 19, 1844 in Boston, Massachusetts to Charles Austin Coolidge, Sr. and Anna Maria (Rice) Coolidge. He attended Norwich UniversityNorwich University
Norwich University is a private university located in Northfield, Vermont . The university was founded in 1819 at Norwich, Vermont, as the American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy. It is the oldest of six Senior Military Colleges, and is recognized by the United States Department of...
in Northfield, Vermont
Northfield, Vermont
Northfield is a town in Washington County, Vermont, United States. It lies in a valley within the Green Mountains, and has been the home of Norwich University since 1866. The town contains the village of Northfield, where over half of its population lives. The population was 6,207 at the 2010...
where he received the degree of B.S. Later he received a medical (MD) degree from the Wooster Medical College in in Wooster, Ohio
Wooster, Ohio
Wooster is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Wayne County. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio approximately SSW of Cleveland and SW of Akron. Wooster is noted as the location of The College of Wooster...
. He married Sophie Wager Lowry, daughter of Philip Lowry and Caroline Tilghman of Philadelphia, on 19 November 1867 at Tallahassee, Florida
Tallahassee, Florida
Tallahassee is the capital of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County, and is the 128th largest city in the United States. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2010, the population recorded by...
.
Military career
On 23 Oct 1862, Coolidge enlisted in the United States Army as a private in the 16th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment. In May 1864 he was appointed Second Lieutenant of the Seventh Infantry Regiment7th Infantry Regiment (United States)
The United States Army's 7th Infantry Regiment, known as "The Cottenbalers" from an incident that occurred during the Battle of New Orleans, while under the command of Andrew Jackson, when soldiers of the 7th Infantry Regiment held positions behind a breastwork of bales of cotton during the...
. The Seventh at that time was on duty in New York, having just come from Gettysburg for the draft riots. Following a month of service at City Point, Virginia, the regiment remained at New York harbor until the end of the war. The regiment was then sent to Florida for the next five years.
After his unit was transferred to the American West in 1870, Lieutenant Coolidge was a member of Captain Brown’s command which opposed Chief Joseph’s
Chief Joseph
Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, popularly known as Chief Joseph, or Young Joseph was the leader of the Wal-lam-wat-kain band of Nez Perce during General Oliver O. Howard's attempt to forcibly remove his band and the other "non-treaty" Nez Perce to a reservation in Idaho...
Nez Percé Indians at Lolo Pass
Nez Perce War
The Nez Perce War was an armed conflict between the Nez Perce and the United States government fought in 1877 as part of the American Indian Wars. After a series of battles in which both the U.S. Army and native people sustained significant casualties, the Nez Perce surrendered and were relocated...
. He was wounded in this campaign at the Battle of the Big Hole
Battle of the Big Hole
The Battle of the Big Hole was a costly battle in the Montana Territory between the Nez Percé and United States army during the Nez Perce War of 1877.-Background:...
on August 9, 1877. Later when appointed a Captain, he served in Montana, Dakota Territory, Fort Snelling
Fort Snelling, Minnesota
Fort Snelling, originally known as Fort Saint Anthony, was a military fortification located at the confluence of the Minnesota River and Mississippi River in Hennepin County, Minnesota...
, Fort D.A. Russell (Wyoming)
Fort D.A. Russell (Wyoming)
Fort D. A. Russell, also known as Fort Francis E. Warren, Francis E. Warren Air Force Base and Fort David A. Russell, was a post and base of operations for the United States Army, and later the Air Force, located in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The fort had been established in 1867 to protect workers for the...
, Rock Springs, Wyoming
Rock Springs, Wyoming
Rock Springs is a city in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 18,708 at the 2000 census. Rock Springs is the principal city of the Rock Springs micropolitan statistical area, which has a population of 37,975....
, and Fort Logan near Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
.
At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
in April 1898, Coolidge attained the rank of Major in the Seventh Infantry Regiment
7th Infantry Regiment (United States)
The United States Army's 7th Infantry Regiment, known as "The Cottenbalers" from an incident that occurred during the Battle of New Orleans, while under the command of Andrew Jackson, when soldiers of the 7th Infantry Regiment held positions behind a breastwork of bales of cotton during the...
. He participated in the capture of El Caney
El Caney
El Caney is a small village 4 miles to the northeast of Santiago, Cuba. "Caney" means longhouse in Taíno.It was known in centuries past as the site where Hernán Cortés received a vision supposedly ordering him to Christianize Mexico. The settlement was host to the Battle of El Caney on July 1,...
on July 1, 1898 and the bombardment of Santiago de Cuba
Santiago de Cuba
Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city of Cuba and capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province in the south-eastern area of the island, some south-east of the Cuban capital of Havana....
.
Tarlac
Tarlac is a landlocked province of the Philippines located in the Luzon Island. Its capital is Tarlac City. Tarlac borders Pampanga to the south, Nueva Ecija to the east, Pangasinan to the north, and Zambales to the west...
. In June 1900 the regiment was ordered to China as part of the China Relief Expedition
China Relief Expedition
The China Relief Expedition was the name of an expedition in China undertaken by the United States Armed Forces to the rescue of United States citizens, European nationals, and other foreign nationals during the latter years of the Boxer Rebellion, which lasted from between 1898 and 1901...
. He assumed command following the death of Colonel Emerson C. Liscum during the Boxer Rebellion
Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also called the Boxer Uprising by some historians or the Righteous Harmony Society Movement in northern China, was a proto-nationalist movement by the "Righteous Harmony Society" , or "Righteous Fists of Harmony" or "Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists" , in China between...
as part of the Allies
Eight-Nation Alliance
The Eight-Nation Alliance was an alliance of Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States whose military forces intervened in China to suppress the anti-foreign Boxers and relieve the siege of the diplomatic legations in Beijing .- Events :The...
relief of the Legation
Legation
A legation was the term used in diplomacy to denote a diplomatic representative office lower than an embassy. Where an embassy was headed by an Ambassador, a legation was headed by a Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary....
at Tianjin
Tianjin
' is a metropolis in northern China and one of the five national central cities of the People's Republic of China. It is governed as a direct-controlled municipality, one of four such designations, and is, thus, under direct administration of the central government...
from June to July 1900. After the departure of Colonel Robert L. Meade of the Marines from China on July 26, 1900, Lieutenant Colonel Coolidge was placed in command of the American forces in China until the arrival of General Adna Chaffee
Adna Chaffee
Adna Romanza Chaffee was a General in the United States Army. Chaffee took part in the American Civil War and Indian Wars, played a key role in the Spanish-American War, and was instrumental in crushing the Boxer Rebellion in China...
in early August 1900. Also during the Boxer Rebellion on August 14, 1900 he led the first American force to enter the Forbidden City
Forbidden City
The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the middle of Beijing, China, and now houses the Palace Museum...
in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
.
In 1901 Coolidge was named Colonel of the Seventh Infantry Regiment, transferred to the Presidio of San Francisco
Presidio of San Francisco
The Presidio of San Francisco is a park on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area...
, where he retired August 8, 1903 as a Brigadier General.
Retirement and death
Coolidge moved to Detroit shortly after the San Francisco earthquake in August 1906. He had been exceptionally active in work of military veterans' organizations and he was a member of the Loyal Legion, the GARGar
In American English the name gar is strictly applied to members of the Lepisosteidae, a family including seven living species of fish in two genera that inhabit fresh, brackish, and occasionally marine, waters of eastern North America, Central America, and the Caribbean islands.-Etymology:In...
, Sons of the American Revolution
Sons of the American Revolution
The National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution is a Louisville, Kentucky-based fraternal organization in the United States...
and the Spanish War Society
United Spanish War Veterans
Soon after the Spanish-American War ended, in early 1899, discharged veterans rushed to form fraternal societies. Among these were the Spanish War Veterans, the Spanish-American War Veterans, the Servicemen of the Spanish War, American Veterans of Foreign Service, the Army of the Philippines, the...
. He was a Councilor of the Boy Scouts of America
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...
and a President of the American Philatelic Society
American Philatelic Society
The American Philatelic Society is the largest nonprofit stamp collecting and organization of philately in the world, with almost 44,000 members from 110 countries...
. He was admitted to the Detroit Post of the GAR
Gar
In American English the name gar is strictly applied to members of the Lepisosteidae, a family including seven living species of fish in two genera that inhabit fresh, brackish, and occasionally marine, waters of eastern North America, Central America, and the Caribbean islands.-Etymology:In...
in 1906, elected Junior Commander two years later and named Commander in 1912. Brigadier General Charles Austin Coolidge died June 2, 1926 at Grace Hospital in Detroit, Michigan in his eighty-first year. He had been ill since May 19, 1926 when he suffered a stroke while attending the Lloyd Tilghman
Lloyd Tilghman
Lloyd Tilghman was a railroad construction engineer and a Confederate general in the American Civil War, killed at the Battle of Champion Hill...
monument unveiling at Vicksburg, Mississippi
Vicksburg, Mississippi
Vicksburg is a city in Warren County, Mississippi, United States. It is the only city in Warren County. It is located northwest of New Orleans on the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers, and due west of Jackson, the state capital. In 1900, 14,834 people lived in Vicksburg; in 1910, 20,814; in 1920,...
. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Lee, a great...
.
Family relations
Charles A. Coolidge and his wife Sophie in 1870 adopted a son, Sherman Coolidge (1862–1932) of Arapahoe ancestry, who became a prominent leader in the Native American community. General Coolidge was the son of Charles and Anna Maria Rice Coolidge. He was a direct descendant of John Coolidge who immigrated from England about 1630 to Watertown, MassachusettsWatertown, Massachusetts
The Town of Watertown is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 31,915 at the 2010 census.- History :Archeological evidence suggests that Watertown was inhabited for thousands of years before the arrival of settlers from England...
, and a cousin of President Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state...
. His grandfather Henry Rice
Henry Rice (politician)
Henry Rice was an American Army officer in the War of 1812, a leading Boston merchant, a member of the Boston City Council and a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.-Biography:...
was a member of the Boston City Council and was a Massachusetts state legislator. He was also a descendant of Edmund Rice
Edmund Rice (1638)
Edmund Rice , was an early immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony who was born in Suffolk, England, and lived in Stanstead, Suffolk and Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire prior to sailing with his family to America. He arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in summer or fall of 1638, presumed to be first...
another early immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...
as follows:
- Brig. Gen Charles A. Coolidge (1844–1926), son of
- Anna Maria Rice (1817 - ?), daughter of
-
-
- Henry RiceHenry Rice (politician)Henry Rice was an American Army officer in the War of 1812, a leading Boston merchant, a member of the Boston City Council and a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.-Biography:...
(1786-1867), son of - Noah Rice (1751-1820), son of
- Jabez Rice (1702-1783), son of
-
- Caleb Rice (1666-1739), son of
- Joseph Rice (1637-1711), son of
-
- Edmund RiceEdmund Rice (1638)Edmund Rice , was an early immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony who was born in Suffolk, England, and lived in Stanstead, Suffolk and Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire prior to sailing with his family to America. He arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in summer or fall of 1638, presumed to be first...
, (ca1594-1663)
- Edmund Rice
- Henry Rice
-