“Charles B. and Dr. Daniel S. Boyle, Taneytown’s Confederate Soldiers”

Carroll County Times article for 24 August 1997

By Jay A. Graybeal

In my 3 August column, I noted that only one soldier from the Taneytown District, Pvt. Charles Bruce Boyle, is known to have served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Since then, I found that his older brother Dr. Daniel Scott Boyle also served in the Confederate Army. Dr. Boyle’s obituary appeared in the 9 February 1901 issue of the Westminster Democratic Advocate newspaper:
“Dr. Daniel Scott Boyle died last Monday afternoon, aged nearly 68 years. He was a son of the late John Brooke Boyle, of this city. In 1855 in company with Major A. G. Ege, of Taneytown, and others, he went to Kansas, and took an active part in the affairs of that territory. When the civil war began he cast his lot with the Southern States, was a surgeon in Gen. Lee’s army, and was captured at the Battle of Antietam and paroled at Frederick, where he served as a hospital surgeon for both the Union and Confederate wounded. After the war he returned to this city, was a clerk under his father, who was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court in 1867. His funeral took place at St. John’s Church Thursday morning. The pall bearers were Messrs. Judge A. C. Bond, William B. Thomas, E. O. Grimes, B. F. Shriver, Wm. A. McKellip, Dr. Frank T. Shaw, S. K. Herr and Wirt Shriver.”
Charles Boyle had apparently not kept his Southern sympathies a secret as he was among a group of sixteen Carroll County men, which also included another brother Henry, arrested by Union soldiers in August 1862 and taken to Baltimore. The men were questioned by Gen. John E. Wool and released upon taking the Oath of Allegiance. Charles Boyle and some of the other men quickly “went South” in 1862 and joined in the Confederate Army.
The former Confederate soldier studied medicine after the war and established a successful practice in Hagerstown, Washington County, Md. Dr. Boyle’s 1924 obituary from a Hagerstown newspaper provides details about his life and family:
“The funeral of Dr. Charles Bruce Boyle, who died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. James Koliopulous, 158 West Washington street yesterday morning will be held Friday morning at 9 o’clock with a High Requiem Mass at St. Mary’s Catholic Church by Rev. Frs. George B. Harrington and Carroll C. Kerr. Interment will be in Rose Hill cemetery.Dr. Boyle was in his 88th year. He was born in Taneytown, Carroll County, the son of Colonel Brooke and Elizabeth (Scott) Boyle. His father, Col. John Brooke Boyle, was one of the prominent citizens of Carroll County. He was the son of Daniel Boyle, whose ancestors were among the early Scotch-Irish settlers of central Maryland.

Col. Boyle, father of Dr. Boyle, was clerk of the Carroll county courts for years and represented his county several terms in the Legislature. He married Mary Maynadur [sic] Scott, daughter of John and Eliza (Key) Scott of Bruceville, Carroll county. They had seven children, three of whom survive Dr. Boyle.

Dr. Boyle was reared at Taneytown receiving his education in the public schools and later at Calvert College. In 1862 he joined the Confederate Army and served under Colonel Brown until the close of the war, participating in many of the hard fought battles that were the consequences of civil strife. After the war he returned home and in 1869 took his degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of Maryland. In 1870 he located in Hagerstown.

Dr. Boyle married Mary Josephine Smith, in 1878. Mrs. Boyle died in 1900. Ten children were born to them, seven surviving. The seven are: Sister Mary de Ricci, Notre Dame Convent, Boston; Mrs. S. A. Trundle, Baltimore, Mrs. John G. Bower, Jr., this city; Mrs. James Koliopulous, this city; Francis M. Boyle, Madrid, Spain; J. Brooke Boyle, Commercial Service Agent of the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co., Baltimore and Robert B. Boyle, of the Superior Coal Co., this city. Three brothers, Bruce and Joseph Boyle, Westminster, Md., and Dr. John Boyle, Crozet, Va., also survive.

Dr. Boyle was a faithful member of the Catholic Church, a Democrat in politics and an able man in his profession. He was known from one end of the county to the other for his high qualities of character and professional ability and especially was he known for his many acts of charity. His death followed a protracted illness.
That Dr. Boyle chose not to return to Taneytown after the war is perhaps not surprising given the overwhelming Union sentiment in the community. He may have also found, however, that the growing city of Hagerstown presented greater opportunities for a new physician.
Photo caption: Dr. Charles Bruce Boyle was one of only two known Confederates from the Taneytown District. Historical Society of Carroll County collection, gift of Mrs. Josephine B. Nester, 1992.