Charles August Leuschner was born on December 15, 1845 in Torgau, Prussia. He was ten years old when he and his family immigrated to America, arriving in Galveston via New Orleans, on October 15, 1855. The Leuschner family settled in Victoria where his father, Gottlieb, worked as a carpenter until his death in 1857.
In the fall of 1861, just prior to his sixteenth birthday, Charles Leuschner joined Company B, Sixth Texas Infantry. Along with most of his regiment, he was captured during the Battle of Arkansas Post (1863) and was a prisoner of war in Illinois until his exchange. He joined Granbury's Texas Brigade, which was formed in 1863, and fought in the battles at Chickamauga (1863), Missionary Ridge (1863), Atlanta (1864), and Franklin (1864) where he was recaptured.
After the Civil War, Leuschner returned to Victoria. Through the years he worked variously as a trail driver, a barber, and was a city alderman and a member of the city band. He also organized the Victoria County German-American Democratic Club to influence elections in local politics. In 1870, he married Sophie Elizabeth Bischoff, who died in 1905. The couple had eleven children. In 1908 Leuschner married Sophie Koehler Schorlemmer. There were no children from this second marriage.
In 1881, author and historian, Victoria Marion Rose of Victoria, dedicated a poem to Leuschner:
To my friend Charles A. Leuschner, of Victoria, Texas, a gallant and brave member of Granburry's [sic] Texas Brigade, and a true man in every relation of life, I cheerfully inscribe these verses, the sentiment of which comes from his old Faderland on the Rhine.
--V.M.R., Victoria Texas, Nov. 1881
In 1882, Leuschner was elected county treasurer and remained at that post for the next twenty-nine years. He died on January 20, 1912 and is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Victoria.
Contents of Charles August Leuschner Papers: Diary of Charles A. Leuschner, May 8, 1864-June 15, 1865, with accounts of the Civil War battles at Atlanta and Franklin, his capture and imprisonment, and eventual release and return to Victoria.
References
Rose, Victor M. Demara, The Comanche Queen, and other Rhymes. New York: J. J. Little, 1882.
Spurlin, Charles D. The Civil War Diary of Charles A. Leuschner. Austin: Eakin Press, 1992.
Weisiger, Sidney R. Sidney Roper Weisiger Papers. Victoria Regional History Center, Victoria College/University of Houston-Victoria Library.