April 9 marks 160 years of the anniversary of when General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House. It was a pivotal moment in American history, and one of the soldiers who was there that day settled in Montgomery in the years after the war ended.

Charles Hepburn Dill was born in Williamsport on June 22, 1842, to William C. and Elizabeth (nee Trexler) Dill. His great-great granddaughter is Doris Claudfelter Yeager, a former Montgomery resident who now makes her home in North Carolina. She shared the story of her great-great grandfather’s service in the Civil War.

Dill’s first enlistment began in 1862. He served in Company K, the Third Regiment, Pennsylvania. It was a militia and he held the rank of private.

His first re-enlistment was also as a private, this time serving in a Cavalry Regiment, part of Company C of the Pennsylvania Thirty-Seventh Regiment.

He also was also in the Company B, the Eighty-Ninth Regiment, Eighth Cavalry.

Dill re-enlisted again on Feb. 20, 1864. He was originally a private but was promoted to the rank of Corporal while serving in Company M, Sixteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment, One Hundred Sixty-First Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry.

Yeager said his service to his country included some of the following battles: Beaver Dam Station, Chickahoming, Hanover Church, Hawes Shop, St. Mary’s Church, Trevillian Station, various operations around Richmond, Virginia, Deep Run, White’s Tavern, Poplar Spring Church, Stoney Creek Station, Weldon Railroad, Bellefield Raid, Hatcher’s Run, Dinwiddie Court House, Boydton Plank Road, Five Forks, Amelia Springs, Saylor’s Creek, Farmville, and Appomattox Court House.

Dill was wounded in battle. Although it’s not clear in which battle he was injured, he was struck in the ankle by gun fire. Despite the wound, he was able to continue serving on horseback in the Cavalry. Dill’s service came to an end on Aug. 11, 1865. He received an honorable discharge while serving in Richmond, Virginia. He never completely recovered and needed a cane until the end of his days.

Yeager noted that while he was on the grounds of Appomattox Court House when Lee surrendered, he was one of tens of thousands of soldiers who were there on that historic day. Dill was outdoors tending to his horse that had been wounded.

After the war, Dill married Elizabeth Emma Gross in Williamsport on April 30, 1867. The West Branch Bulletin, a Williamsport newspaper, reported on May 18, 1867, that Dill was a resident of Williamsport and his bride was from Northampton County.

Eventually Dill and his wife moved to Montgomery, although it’s not clear exactly when. The couple lived in a house on Johnson Street and Dill got a job as a machinist.

Yeager stated “he remained a faithful friend to the Civil War Patriots of No. 264, G.A.R..” The Col. D. L. Montgomery Post No. 264, Grand Army of the Republic Post (G.A.R.), was an organization of veterans who had served the North in the Civil War.

According to Joan Wheal-Blank’s Book Around Montgomery, the G.A.R Post had a monument placed in Fairview Cemetery in Montgomery to honor the service of northern Civil War Veterans in 1892.

The book stated that about three hundred local men served in the north, but there were a few local men who chose to enlist on the Confederate side.

“He was esteemed for his steadfast character of dutiful competency, trustworthy conduct, and a dependable disposition — a stalwart citizen of Montgomery,” Yeager shared.

Cpl. Charles Hepburn Dill died in 1906. His passing was reported in the Tuesday, May 8, 1906, edition of the Williamsport newspaper The Evening News in the Montgomery column simply by stating, “Charles Dill died Sunday morning at 6 o’clock of indigestion.”

According to Yeager, a few years after his death, Charles Hepburn Dill’s children were presented with an ornately decorated color poster that provided many details of his service in the Union Cavalry for the Grand Army of the Republic, and also had the insignia of the Montgomery G.A.R. chapter.

Yeager was gifted a copy of it by one of her relatives, and she shared information from the poster along with details about this life.

The poster was published for the Army and Navy Record Company, and there is a handwritten note on it that says, “Dedicated to the memory of Comrade Dill, and child Bruce by his wife and mother Elizabeth Dill, and presented to the children Frank, Flora, Blanche, Charles H. and Harry. October 1909.”

Charles Hepburn Dill is buried in a family plot in Fairview Cemetery, Montgomery, not far from the G.A.R. monument. There is a small metal veteran flag holder with a plaque by his grave that commemorates his service in the Grand Army of the Republic.