Upon graduation, Ballou was commissioned in the Sixteenth Infantry and was on frontier duty in the Far West. He was part of the Sioux Campaign of 1890 and 1891. From 1891 to 1893, Ballou was Professor of Military Science and Tactics at Florida State Agriculture College.[3][4]
During 1897 and 1898, he went to the Infantry and Cavalry School. From July 8 to October 20, 1898, he was a major in the Seventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He was then regimental quartermaster in the Philippines in 1899, where he participated in the battle of Zapote River.[3]
He attended the Field Officers School in 1916 and the Army War College in 1916 and 1917.[3]
Ballou was promoted to brigadier general of the National Army in August 1917 after which he was made a major general on November 28. He commanded the 92nd Infantry Division from October 27, 1917 to November 18, 1918. From November 19 to February 1, Ballou commanded the 86th Division.[3][5]
Ballou retired in 1926 as a colonel with forty years of service.[2][3][6]
Ballou married Cora May Hendrick on June 30, 1886 in Hornby, New York.[8] Their daughter Julia Bertha Ballou was a painter of portraits and Western American Art.[9][10] Their son Charles Nelson Senn Ballou briefly attended West Point and then joined the Army, retiring as a colonel after World War II.[11][12][13]
The grave of Major General Charles C. Ballou at West Point cemetery
.
Charles Clarendon Ballou died at the age of sixty-six on July 23, 1928. His rank of major general was restored by act of Congress in June 1930.[2] He was originally buried at the Fort George Wright Cemetery in Spokane, Washington, but his remains were moved to the West Point Cemetery in 1931.[14][15]
^Official Army Register(PDF). Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army. January 1, 1945. p. 43. Retrieved 2022-07-19.
^"Class of 1921—Register of Graduates". Register of Graduates and Former Cadets 1802–1971 of the United States Military Academy. The West Point Alumni Foundation Inc. 1971. p. 367. Retrieved 2022-07-19.
Farwell, Byron. 1999. Over there: the United States in the Great War, 1917-1918. New York: Norton. ISBN9780393046984OCLC39478133
Marquis Who's Who, Inc. Who Was Who in American History, the Military. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1975. ISBN0837932017OCLC657162692
Venzon, Anne Cipriano (2013). The United States in the First World War: an Encyclopedia. Hoboken, NJ: Taylor and Francis. ISBN1-135-68453-7. OCLC865332376.
