Note: To my knowledge, I do not have any genealogical ties to this man or his family. I merely have an interest in him because he is the namesake of my great-grandfather, Charles Wesley Chapman Wood. If this man is related to you, please let me know!

Charles Wesley Chapman was most likely born in 1838 to William and Maria Chapman, judging from 1850 census records, though I cannot be sure on that.

From the book, Under the Red Patch: Story of the Sixty Third Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-1865, complied by Gilbert Adams Hays in 1908, we find that Chapman was captain of company K of the 63rd Regiment of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, otherwise known as "Hays' Guards." This company was formed with men from Allegheny, Beaver, Clarion, Venango & Mercer Counties in Pennsylvania, among them a 20-year-old man by the name of John Denver Wood.

"An affair of this kind occurred on the night of the 5th of March, 1862. We were on picket at Pohick Church, and a detachment of the regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel Morgan, had gone out on a scout toward Occoquan. The rebels prepared a trap for them, and as they were passing along a dark and lonely road, they were saluted by a severe fire from the enemy in ambush which killed Captain C.W. Chapman of Company K, Quartermaster James S. Lyse and Private Cyrus Moore of Company G, and wounded several others." ~ Written by William H. Morrow, Company A.
Found in the book Under the Red Patch: Story of the Sixty Third Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-1865, complied by Gilbert Adams Hays in 1908

According to Ancestry.com, Chapman's mother, Maria, later applied for his pension, which suggests that he never married.

Sources:
1. Ancestry.com Civil War Pension Database
2. Gilbert Adams Hays, Under the Red Patch: Story of the Sixty Third Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-1865, (Pittsbugrh, PA; Sixty-Third Pennsylvania Volunteers Regimental Association. 1908). Submitted to Kelley Wood by William Bozic

Written by Kelley Wood - Davis 2004