Charles William Gorsuch was born and baptised on May 9, 1837 in Chichester, Sussex, England and attended a Bluecoat school in Chichester. He was a Choirboy at Chichester Cathedral during Bishop Newman’s time. Newman left the Church of England and joined the Catholic Church, rising to the rank of Cardinal of all England. Charles was very proud of him and held a letter sent to him by the Cardinal. According to descendants, Charles arrived in the United States to be with his brother Johnathon Gorsuch around 1860 and worked as a store keeper. After the outbreak of the American Civil War, according to the official muster records, he enlisted in the 145th Pennsylvania Infantry Volunteers at Erie, Pennsylvania on September 10, 1862 for a three year period and was mustered in on September 12 by Captain William R. Brown.  The company muster roll shows official mustering on September 12, 1862 and enlistment on September 13th, with Charles being recorded on the muster roll as being  mustered on October 31, 1862. He was assigned to be a hospital orderly. All the 145th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers of Company K, under the command of J. Cooke Hilton, were recruited for service in Erie County, Pennsylvania.

The 145th Infantry Regiment was organized at Erie Pennsylvania on September 5, 1862. On September 10th and 11th it moved from Erie to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania and then to Hagerstown and on to Antietam, Maryland from September 15th through the 17th. It was attached to the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, 2nd Army Corps, Army of the Potomac until April 1863. It was then attached to the 4th Brigade, 1st Division, 2nd Army corps until May 1865.

On September 22, 1862 the 145th moved to Harper’s Ferry, to Charleston on October 16, to Falmouth, Virginia on the 29th, the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 12th and saw action at Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Mine Run, Battle of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbour, Petersburg, Deep Bottom, Hatcher’s Run, Appomattox and aw the surrender of General Lee. It participated in the Grand Review on May  23 and mustered out on May 31, 1865. Gorsuch’s regiment lost 18 officers and 187 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded with 3 officers and 214 enlisted men who died from diseases.

The war was not going well for the Union by the end of the summer of 1862 McClellan 's Peninsular Campaign had failed and Pope had just been defeated in the Second Bull Run Campaign. The Northern armies badly needed more troops. The raw recruits of the 145th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment left Pennsylvania on September 12, 1862 and only five days later had their first battle experience at the Battle of Antietam at Sharpsburg, Maryland.  They subsequently fought in almost every major battle in the eastern theatre of war; including  the Battles of Fredericksburg, Virginia, Chancellorsville, Virginia, Gettysburg, Virginia, Spotsylvania and Petersburg.

During January Charles was listed as absent, being sick at Washington. A Disability of Discharge was officially signed for Charles at Erie City, Tennessee when he was 25 years of age, having been unfit for duty for a period of sixty days at the Stanton Hospital in Washington, D.C..  

On the March and April muster of 1863 Charles was shown as having been discharged for disability, by a surgeon’s order, on February 21, 1863.  On May 31, 1865, Charles reenlisted at Alexandria, Virginia after working at the Southwork Foundry in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He stated in a General Affidavit in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia while living at 77 Hope Street, Brunswick, Victoria, that he had heard that “attendants were badly wanted at the Quartermasters Hospital Washington, D.C.. It was a matter of difficulty to get attendants on account of there being white and coloured patients”. The white attendants did not want to care for Africana soldiers, even though they fought in the same regiments. He said there was an unpleasant situation between two superintendents, James and DeLincoln, and an attendant and not wanting to become involved in it he left. He then crossed over the Potomac River and began working at the “St. Elizabethan Asylum” under a Doctor Nicols; at a rate of pay of $30 a month. During a period when a fever epidemic was raging in the White Oak Ward, Charles was the only person there said to be fit for duty.

By December 31, 1865 Gorsuch was again listed as absent; again being sick at Washington. His surgeon’s report states he was suffering from “varicose veins and varicose ulceration of the lower extremities”, which resulted before his enlistment. Charles was officially discharged for a second and last time on February 21, 1865 at Washington, D.C. by reason of the surgeon’s certificate of disability; signed by John A Lidell, Stanton General Hospital Commander.

Gorsuch arrived in Australia around 1865. His brother Edward Gorsuch had arrived in Australia from England with his wife Emily Barnes Gorsuch in 1853, when Edward was twenty-four years of age, and had settled in Carlton, Victoria and Charles had decided to join him. After arriving, Charles first went to the Ballarat gold fields to work. Records reveal Charles was working as a “Commercial Traveller”, what we call a travelling salesman today, in 1870, operating out of his home in Ballarat, Victoria. While living in Ballarat Charles met and married his wife, Janet “Jessie” Pollack Fleming on February 5, 1870. Their first son, George Washington Gorsuch was born on November 10, 1875 at Carlton, followed Annie Christina and Florence Mary in 1879 and 1882 respectively, in Ballarat. Jessie, Charles’s wife, died on March 28, 1890 in Ballarat. 

In 1896 a Bureau of Pensions examination reveals that due to an accident that occurred at Bolivan Heights during his military career at which time a Dr. Potter attended him, an abscess developed which left Gorsuch unfit for duty.  The examining physician stated he was suffering from “a gunshot wound and an injury to his back, resulting in an alleged abscess of the fistula”. On November 13, 1897 a notarized claim was made for the pension board that Charles was an applicant and entitled to a pension because of injury to the “fistula, old age and general breaking up and deafness”.  Charles further stated he was entitled due to “varicose veins of both legs, that before leaving England he was determined by a doctor to be of sound mind, and that he had never indulged in strong drink or bad women”. Charles Gorsuch was eventually granted a military pension on April 12, 1904.

Charles William Gorsuch died the following year on October 7, 1905 at the North Melbourne Benevolent Asylum and was buried in grave number 294 of the Wesleyan Compartment C, on October 9, 1905 in the Boroondara Cemetery in Kew, Victoria, Australia.

His pension application number is 983769 and the certificate number is 1003868.

Gorsuch Affidavits - Gorsuch Discharge - Gorsuch Family Tree documents

Gorsuch Pension papers - History of Pennsylvania volunteers, 1861-5,  Samuel P. Bates.

History of the Flags of the 145th Pennsylvania. Volunteer Infantry,

Pennsylvania Capital Preservation Committee

Mrs. Ian Phyl Gray, descendant - Pennsylvania in the Civil War, Infantry Regiments

"I'm surrounded by Methodists: Diary of John H. W. Stuckenberg, Chaplain of the 145th Pennsylvania Volunteer

Infantry Regiment," 145th Pennsylvania, edited by  David T. Hedrick and Barry Davis.

145th Pennsylvania Muster Rolls