Historic Biographies:

Charles Francis "Challa" Sevier (1842-1931)

Confederate Sailor and Soldier

Born October 16, 1842 in Greene County, Tennessee and raised in Greenville. He attended McMinn Academy, a private school for boys, and the United States Naval Academy. He was known as "Challa" throughout his life.

Challa's Great-grandfather was Captain Robert Sevier mortally wounded in the revolutionary war Battle of Kings Mountain, October 7, 1780. Robert died a few days after the battle, leaving two children Valentine and Charles. In 1922, 80 year old Challa replied to the Tennessee Civil War Veterans Questionnaire regarding his family,

"Valentine was my grandfather, his wife Miss Nancy Dinwiddie of Va. died leaving 12 children by 1st marriage and 2 by 2d marriage; he lived in Greenville, a merchant and Clerk of the Court from its organization to his death a member of the Legislature when the capitol of the state was at Murfreesboro. James K. Polk was Clerk. There was a strong personal friendship sprang up between and lasted til his death, he died an honored citizen of the County and State."

Challa's brief time at the Naval Academy included service aboard the USS Constitution. Still in service today, it has an active duty US Navy crew, homeported in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the Navy's tall ship that usually sails just once a year for Fourth of July celebrations. Undefeated in battle, the USS Consitution is the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world. She was launched in Boston on October 21, 1797, and first put to sea in 1798. She earned her nickname "Old Ironsides" because cannonballs bounced off of her oak sides during the War of 1812.

With the start of the Civil War, April 12, 1861, the United States Naval Academy, in Annapolis, Maryland, was in danger. Despite being a slave state, Maryland did not join the Confederacy, but in April of 1861 there was no guarantee that the political manuvering and Union military pressure would work to keep Maryland from seceding. On April 21, troops of the US Army under General Benjamin F. Butler landed to secure the campus and evacuate the students. The USS Constitution carried the Academy Midshipmen to Newport, RI. Classes reconvene with a much diminished number of students and instructors in the new location on May 13. Many of the Midshipmen, including Challa, left to fight in the war. The Naval Academy returned to Annapolis, August 9, 1865, after the end of the war, having been in Newport for 4 years.

Upon his resignation from the Naval Academy, Challa tendered his services to Gov. Isham Harris of Tennessee. He was ordered to report to the newly formed Confederate States Navy at New Bern, NC. During the course of the war 400 Naval Academy graduates served in the Union Navy, 95 in the Confederate Navy and 23 were killed in battle or died of wounds.

Challa died December 22, 1931 in Savanna, Tennessee. The following is his obituary from Confederate Veteran Magazine, March 1932:

COMMANDER CHARLES FRANCIS SEVIER

Charles Francis Sevier, born October 16, 1842, in Greene County, Tennessee, died December 22, 1931, at Savannah, Tenn. He was a member of pioneer families, a great-grandson of Valentine Sevier. He entered the Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1859, resigned in June, 1861, and joined the Confederate Navy, going aboard the Curlew on the North Carolina coast, where he participated in the battle of Roanoke Island. He served on the Livingston about New Orleans, and was on the Palmetto State in Atlantic Coast patrol for sixteen months. In the James River fleet, he was aboard the Patrick Henry, and became first officer of the Drury. He was again ordered into coast service as Commander of the cruiser Chickamauga, and destroyed ships from New England to the Bermudas. He witnessed the fall of Wilmington and was ordered to Richmond, where he organized a battalion of infantry, and became captain of a company of volunteer sailors. He fought at Sailor’s Creek, and was captured and taken to Washington the night Lincoln was assassinated. From the Old Capitol prison he was taken to Johnson’s Island [see Johnson's Island Prison 1862-1865] where he remained until the end of the war.

Charles Sevier served one year, 1860, on the famous ship Constitution, and eagerly anticipated seeing her again on the proposed cruise in Southern waters. A number of his comrades included Dick Floyd (uncle of William G. McAdoo) , Marmaduke, Pearson, Benton, and Long Berny.

Captain Sevier rounded out a well spent life as a cotton planter in Hardin County, Tennessee, honored and revered by all who knew him, idolized by his family and the local Daughters of the Confederacy. His zeal for the South's cause never waned. Dignified in life, in death he was every inch the soldier as he lay in state under the Stars and Bars.