[Charles Frederick]. British military adventurer and author, born in England, of Swedish parents, in 1815. He joined the Carlist army in Spain in 1834, and became colonel of cavalry after the battle of Vielas de los Navarros. He was afterward taken prisoner, and released on parole. Then he served in the Russian army in Circassia, and afterward joined Kossuth in the Hungarian Revolution, becoming commander of the Fortress Comorn. Going to America in Kossuth’s interest, he joined, in 1856, William Walker in his expedition to Nicaragua, where he was given command of the artillery. He distinguished himself by his defense of Granada, and in the victory of Queresma. After Walker’s surrender to Commodore Davis, United States navy, in 1857, Henningsen returned to the United States. At the outbreak of the Civil War he entered the Confederate army as colonel, but soon afterward was made brigadier-general. He was an able artillerist. Henningsen published Revelations of Russia (1845); The White Slave, a novel; Eastern Europe; Sixty Hours Hence, a novel of Russian life; Past and Future of Hungary; Personal Recollections of Nicaragua. He died in Washington, DC, on the 14th of June 1877, where he had settled after the Civil War.
