In my work on our local Mexican War company, of which Wickliffe was the original captain, I have got the majority of his former wife's file. As we talked before and you didn't believe, these files have many instances of veterans having to prove that they were loyal during the War Between the States. Several concealed their Confederate service and received pensions. Prominent war-time Unionists had to vouch for the loyalty of these veterans. One veteran in particular was not approved because one deposition in his file mentioned he served in the Confederate army, and with that the US government also claimed that he had a pre-existing condition.

Here is something I recently wrote for my hometown SCV newsletter:

Colonel Charles Wickliffe (1822-1862)

Everyone probably knows a general amount of information about the Jackson Purchase’s own Colonel Charles Wickliffe of the Seventh Kentucky Infantry, CSA, but I would like to introduce you to some little known information of this gallant citizen-soldier who commanded men from Calloway County and other areas of the Jackson Purchase in two wars.

The West Point trained Southern patriot was a citizen of Ballard County, Kentucky, at the time he raised troops for the US army in the Mexican War and the Confederate army in the War Between the States. Fully one quarter of his Mexican War company was from Calloway County, Kentucky. Several of these Calloway County men would later serve in the Confederate army, with several in units from Calloway County, and one would serve as a lieutenant in Wickliffe’s Confederate regiment.

During the Mexican War members of Captain Wickliffe’s company of men were engaged in at least one action with Mexican guerrillas under General Antonio Canales Rosillo. In Mexico during the war Wickliffe was promoted from captain to major. Many of the men that would later become generals in the Confederate army had only been lieutenants and captains during the Mexican War. If the West Point trained Wickliffe had lived longer, with his record from the Mexican War, he would have no doubt at least been promoted to brigadier general in the Confederate army.

As commanding officer of the Seventh Kentucky Infantry, CSA, he was severely wounded at the battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, on April 6, 1862. He died April 22, 1862 in Madison County, Tennessee, at the home of William O. Butler. Jasper W. Muir, Wickliffe’s brother-in-law, had the Colonel’s remains removed from Madison County, Tennessee, and shipped to the Wickliffe family burial plot at Bardstown, Kentucky, and there interred.

Unfortunately, the Colonel’s burial place has never been properly marked. It should be up to us as Sons of Confederate Veterans whose ancestors and our ancestors neighbors served under the gallant Colonel during two wars to make sure his final resting place is properly marked. Will you heed the call?

During the early twentieth century the Jackson Purchase’s own US Representative Alben Barkley, along with Wickliffe relative and Kentucky US Senator John Crepps Wickliffe Beckham, pushed legislation through Congress to give Colonel Wickliffe’s widow a Mexican War widow’s pension. This was no small accomplishment as this action was contrary to the requirements of the eligibility for a Mexican War pension. Wickliffe’s widow had been married twice since the death of the Colonel. Also, the Colonel had served in the Confederate army thus in the eyes of the US government supported a rebellion against the United States. We must never forget the great service the party of the Confederate veterans did for her loyal to the South citizenry.