Charles B. Gahagan (1865-1911)

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By Kevin Fewell 

Charles B. Gahagan was a veteran of the Spanish-American War, fighting alongside Theodore Roosevelt as a member of the Rough Riders in Cuba. Gahagan, a corporal in Company G, 3rd Missouri Infantry, was wounded in his right knee, a wound that never healed. He was medically discharged from the Army in 1889 and married Mary Margaret Fuller in 1908. His wound continued to worsen, resulting in several surgeries, ultimately including the amputation of most of his right leg to rid the body of infection. Eventually, he was admitted to the Northwestern Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer soldiers in Leavenworth, Kan., where he finally lost his battle with the infection. Gahagan passed away in 1911, leaving his wife, two-year-old daughter and an unborn son.