Charles King was born in New York and came to Milwaukee in 1845 with his father, Rufus King, editor and publisher of the Milwaukee Sentinel and first commander of the famed Civil War Iron Brigade. Charles King graduated from West Point, took part in the Civil War, and served on active duty until 1879, when a serious battle wound during an Indian campaign forced his retirement. After returning to Wisconsin, he began a writing career that popularized the exploits of the U.S. cavalry in the West, helped transform the state's militia system into the modern National Guard, and commanded the Guard during the 1886 labor riots in Bay View. He taught for many years at St. Johns Military Academy in Delafield, re-entered federal service during the Spanish-American War, attained the rank of brigadier general, and later participated in World War I. Spending more than seventy years in uniform, longer than any soldier in American history, he also wrote and published extensively on military life, and the village of King in Waupaca County bears his name.