"A Visit From Charles Jenkins of the Cal 100"

The year is 1912, and you are seated at the Shrine Auditorium for the Evening Campfire of the 46th National Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic. You've spent a pleasant day parading through the streets of Los Angeles with your Comrades of old.

You will be present as Charles Myers Jenkins welcomes you to the Campfire. He has been selected for this honor as the only man from Los Angeles to join the Union Army, travel east to fight in the Virginia Theatre, and return to Los Angeles.

Comrade Jenkins will tell the story of the organization and deployment of the famous California Hundred and California Battalion. He will tell of their arrivals in the east, and the receptions they received as they became Companies A, E, L, F and M of the 2nd Massachusetts Vol. Cavalry. Mr. Jenkins will also tell us of his life in Los Angeles and his war experiences, which include a face-to-face fight with the "Grey Ghost" himself, Col John S. Mosby.

Our speaker this month will be Wayne Sherman, who has researched and resurrected the persona of Charlie Jenkins. A graduate of the University of Arizona, Wayne has been a contractor in the Santa Barbara area since 1980. He is a charter member of the West Coast Civil War Collectors, a member of the Company of Military Historians, a reenactor with Co. A of the 2nd Mass. Vol. Cavalry (the Cal 100), and Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Drum Barracks Garrison and Society.

For those of you who may have missed Wayne's presentation at the West Coast Civil War Round Table Conference last November, you have a rare opportunity to see Wayne (and Charlie) again in a moving representation of this veteran's story.

As we've uncovered Pasadena and Southern California Civil War connections this year, don't miss out on the continuing story of how California residents served the Union.

Janet Whaley
Program Chair

Return to Home Page                   Return to Past Presentations