Charles E. Kilbourne Sr.

Charles E. Kilbourne Sr. (January 17, 1844 – November 30, 1903) was a career United States Army officer who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War and attained the regular rank of major and brevet rank of colonel. He was the father of Charles E. Kilbourne.

Biography Charles E. Kilbourne was the grandson of Colonel James Kilbourne, who led the first party of settlers from Connecticut to Ohio and who was Ohio's first representative in Congress, and the son of Lincoln Kilbourne, a prominent businessman in Columbus, Ohio. Charles E. Kilbourne was born on January 17, 1844, and received his early education in the schools of his home city and later, for a time, at Kenyon College. At the outbreak of the American Civil War he enlisted for brief service as private in the local company of Ohio Reserve Militia, was soon thereafter selected by Samuel S. Cox, member of Congress, to represent the district at the National Military Academy, and in June 1862, with some 60 young men from the states not regarded as being "in rebellion," began the toilsome climb to a commission with the class of '66.