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After 2009 Restoration

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Military Service Record of Charles Madiss.

During the summer of 2014, research was undertaken, by Fletch Coke and Ashley Poe, City Cemetery Board members, about the military career of Charles Madiss. In 1929, a bronze plaque was mounted on a marker and placed at City Cemetery by The Hero of New Orleans Chapter Tennessee USD 1812. On the plaque his name was spelled “Maddis.” In the City Cemetery Interment Book his name was spelled “Madiss.” The spelling of his name differed in his death notices and articles about his service in the War of 1812.

Charter members of “The Hero of New Orleans” Chapter USD 1812 included Mrs. Mary Dorris (died 1924), Regent of the Ladies Hermitage Association, Mrs. Rachel Jackson Lawrence (1923), granddaughter of General Andrew Jackson. Miss Susie Gentry proposed the name for the chapter, founded in 1915, which became Chapter No. 2 of Tennessee. [This background history was obtained through the efforts of Susan Walker, The Old Glory Chapter USD, and was provided by Mary Raye Casper, Historian National, N.S.U.S.D. of 1812, during the summer of 2014.]

Charles Madiss’ military service in the War of 1812 was in the Northwest. Captain Madiss, Conductor of Artillery, served with distinction under General Harrison. He was mentioned in General Harrison’s dispatches. His service record was confirmed by Dr. Tom Kanon, War of 1812 Historian. There appears to be no documentation that Madiss participated n the Battle of New Orleans. A reference in Madiss’ death notice in the Nashville newspaper in 1854, may have been the beginning of this legend: “Madiss fought in the war of 1812, and was, we are told, at the memorable battle of New Orleans.” Two of death notices (see below) provide additional details of his service in the Northwest during the War of 1812.

Charles Madiss and his two grandsons, James Polk Longinotti and Charles Longinotti, were killed in a tragic house fire in Nashville in April 1854. The two grandsons have a tombstone at City Cemetery which was recorded when the cemetery was first surveyed in 1908. Charles Madiss did not have a tombstone in 1908. Interment records report that all three were buried in Section 2 on Charles Longinotti’s lot, Lot number 21.

Nashville Banner, Saturday, April 22, 1854

Daily Courier, Oshkosh, Wisconsin,
Saturday, May 13, 1854