Charles Fessenden Morse (September 22, 1839 – December 11, 1926) was a Lieutenant Colonel and Captain in the 54th Massachusetts Regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War and, afterward, an influential businessman and civic leader in Kansas City, Missouri.

Morse was promoted to captain of the regiment's Company B, and served in this role at the battles of Cedar Mountain, Antietam, and Chancellorsville.

During the 1880s and 1890s, Col. Morse helped establish several elite civic institutions, including The Barstow School and the Kansas City Country Club.

His battlefield letters to Robert Gould Shaw served as primary sources for the books that inspired the film.

Colonel Morse is cited in several sections of the 2009 non-fiction novel, The Bonfire - The Siege and Burning of Atlanta, written by Marc Wortman.