Carlos Frederick Mansur was born in Barnston, Canada on July 8^th, 1840. At age 17 he moved with his family to Randolph Center, Wisconsin and it was there on September 8^th, 1861 he married Miss Columbia Gale. The day after his marriage Carlos enlisted in the 8^th Wisconsin Infantry as a Private.

The 8^th Wisconsin was one of the most famous regiments in the Union Army, not only for its fighting prowess, which was considerable, but because it had the most famous mascot in the army- Old Abe, the War Eagle. The young bird had been purchased by a group of soldiers in 1861 as they were on their way to join their new regiment, the 8^th Wisconsin Infantry. Old Abe was given the run of the camp, eating what he wanted of the soldier’s food and even taking an occasional shot of liquor. Soon word spread of the unusual mascot and often tourists and even Generals would come into the camp of the 8^th to see Old Abe. The troops made a special perch for Abe, in the shape of the Union shield, and with a long leather tether they would carry him into battle. Abe would fly above the battlefield, "shrieking encouragement," as one soldier remembered, though probably the bird was screeching out of terror from the noise and smoke. After the war Abe was placed in a special cage at the Wisconsin Statehouse in Madison, where he lived until his death in 1881. Hundreds of photographs and postcards were made of Abe both during and after the war, and he became for millions of people a symbol of American courage.

The 8^th Wisconsin did their war-time service in what was known as the Western Theater, seeing action in many battles in the states of Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee. They first saw action at Island No.10, a Confederate fort in the middle of the Mississippi River in upper Tennessee. This engagement was a stunning Union victory as a combined force of Army troops and Navy ironclad gunboats bombed the fort into submission, capturing more than 5,000 Confederates and placing the northern terminus of the mighty Mississippi under Union control. Private Mansur and the 8^th Wisconsin also played pivotal roles in the battles of Iuka and Corinth, in northern Mississippi, in the autumn of 1862. In the spring of 1863 they embarked on one of the greatest campaigns in U.S. military history, the battle and siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi under the command of General Ulysses S. Grant. Vicksburg was a vital link to the Confederacy, a fortress-town on the Mississippi River that prevented any movement south by Union troops trying to use the waterway. President Abraham Lincoln called the town "the nailhead that holds the Confederacy together," and Grant, with his army of 45,000, would have to defeat a Confederate garrison force in and around the city of 60,000 men.

The entire operation took over 2 months. After two failed assaults on the Confederate earthworks that surrounded the city, during which the 8th Wisconsin was almost cut to pieces at Stockade Redan along the aptly-named Graveyard Road, General Grant resolved to achieve victory by employing classic siege-warfare tactics. He had the city surrounded and control of all the roads leading into town, so for 47 days he simply held his ground and waited for the encircled Confederates to use up all their ammunition and food supplies. The shelling from both sides was constant at this time- the Union troops like Mansur and the 8^th Wisconsin dug holes into the ground and into the hillsides to escape the bombardment and the searing Mississippi sun. Finally, on July 4^th, 1863, the starving Confederates surrendered and the Union troops marched into the town and flew the United States flag from the city courthouse. The siege was over, and the citizens of Vicksburg chose to commemorate the occasion by not celebrating the 4^th of July in their town for the next 82 years.

But the campaign had been an extremely hard one for the Union troops involved. Thousands died from disease, and thousands more were taken ill from the combination of Southern climate and 19^th century sanitation practices. Carlos Mansur, now promoted to Corporal, was hospitalized in August of 1863, suffering from ague (a malarial fever), dysentery, chronic diarrhea, rheumatism and congestive chills. He was sent home to Wisconsin in November of that year to recover and to perform recruiting duties for the regiment, though his health never returned. He was mustered out with the remainder of the 8^th Wisconsin in September of 1864.

Mansur moved from Wisconsin to California in 1867, settling in a small mining town in the Sierras called Camptonville. Unable to continue in his pre-war occupation as a farmer due to his various health problems, he became a merchant and was also appointed town Postmaster. Camptonville, like dozens of other mining towns in the same region, eventually dried up and Carlos brought his wife and six children to Santa Ana in 1880. He was one of the organizers of the Orange County Savings Bank and was its cashier until his retirement in 1902. He also served two terms as County Treasurer. As well as being a member of the Elks and the Masons, he was at one time the Commander of Santa Ana’s Grand Army of the Republic contingent, the Sedgwick Post #17. He passed away in 1915 at 74 years of age and is interred at Fairhaven Memorial Park.

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