Charles Henry Tompkins was born September 12, 1830, in Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia to Colonel Daniel D. Tompkins and Mary Perry Pierce Tompkins. Tompkins received an appointment to West Point but left to work in the private sector. In 1856, he enlisted, as a private, in the Frist Dragoons and rose through the ranks. Tompkins received his commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 2nd U.S. Cavalry in March 1861. At the Battle of Fairfax Court House in June 1861, he charged through enemy lines twice and killed Captain John Quincy Marr, the first Confederate soldier killed in combat. For his bravery, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Tompkins eventually attained the rank of colonel and was brevetted to Brigadier General by the end of the war He was one of nine officers on the military commission that tried the conspirators involved in President Lincoln’s assassination.

On December 17, 1862, Tompkins married Augusta Root Hobbie. They had seven children, Sela Reeve, Charles Henry, Frank, Julia, George Parker, Augusta “Gussie”, and Daniel.

Between 1866 and 1881, because of a dispute with General Grant, he was assigned to numerous remote and austere western posts. While serving in the Quarter Master Corps in Arizona, Tompkins was accused of misappropriation of funds and charges were filed. On January 11, 1873, in San Francisco, he was tried and sentenced to suspension of rank for one year and forfeiture of all pay and allowances except for $75 a moth “for an offense shown to be technical in its character.” It seems that, while he did not benefit personally, Tompkins took funds earmarked for one purpose and allocated them to one he considered more critical. After his suspension, he remained in the Quartermasters Corps and, eight year later, had risen to the rank of Assistant Quartermaster General.

With Samuel B. Holabird set to retire as Quartermaster General in June 1890, Tompkins aspired to succeed him. Aware that his court martial could hinder his candidacy, it is believed that he reached out to members of his court martial and fellow officers to mitigate its impact.

In September 1914, Tompkins suffered a broken leg and never recovered. He passed from sepsis on January 18, 1915 in Washington, D. C. He is buried there, at Oak Hill Cemetery.