Charles Henry Cary

In 1860 he was a 21 year old clerk living with his parents and siblings in Grand Rapids, MI; his father Alfred X. Cary owned a farm & feed store. Charles enlisted there on 13 May 1861 as a Sergeant in Company A, 3rd Michigan Infantry, and mustered as Sergeant Major of the regiment on 10 June. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant on 28 October 1861. He was detailed to the Signal Corps in December 1861 and by March 1862 was with the Third Corps, Army of the Potomac, and served with them on the Peninsula Campaign.

On 4 September 1862 he was at Upton's Hill, VA but by 14 September he was near the contested gaps on South Mountain. On the 15th he was in the center of the union position near Keedysville. On 19 September he was with Captain Fisher in advance near Boteler's Ford on the Potomac, and on the 20th assigned to the station on Sugarloaf Mountain.

By 14 December 1862 he was at Fredericksburg and on signal telegraph duty. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on 5 February 1863 but died of disease at Ninth Army Corps headquarters near Jackson, MS on 18 July 1863.

His basic service from the Record of Service,1 with details from Brown,2 as Charles H. Carey, and his death notice in the New York Times of 9 August 1863. Maryland Campaign events from Captain B.F. Fisher's Report. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

c. 1839; Brockport, NY

07/18/1863; Jackson, MS; burial in Fulton Street Cemetery, Grand Rapids, MI