Charles Ellery Bradley

In 1860 he was a 17 year old laborer and lived with his parents and sister in Spencer, Tioga County, NY. He enlisted on 7 May 1861 at Ithaca for two years and mustered as Private, Company I, 32nd New York Infantry on 31 May. He was promoted to Corporal on 17 March 1862.

He was in action on South Mountain on 14 September 1862. On 10 October he wrote his father about his regiment:

Our Colonel [Matheson] is dead. Our Lt. Colonel is colonel of the 37th Regiment and Major is wounded. The Senior Captain is gone to Hagerstown. I am acquainted with [him]. We met in the battlefield at Crampton’s Gap & had a good talk. He seemed very glad that I got through safe.

He was promoted to Sergeant on 7 October 1862. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant on 9 May 1863 (to date from 6 January), but did not muster at that rank, and was mustered out of service with his Company on 9 June 1863 in New York City.

By 1870 and to at least 1880 he was a dry goods merchant in Spencer. His wife and children were still in Spencer at the 1900 US Census, but Charles was not listed with them.

His service from the Adjutant General.1 The quote above from his letter of 10 October 1862, transcribed and hosted online by Griff; from a large collection in the University of Virginia Library. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860-1900. His gravesite is on Findagrave, as Charles Ellay Bradley.

He married Margaret Elizabeth Bush (1842-1904) in September 1864 and they had 5 children; the first two, twin girls, died in infancy.

11/13/1842; Spencer, NY

12/24/1915; Spencer, NY; burial in Evergreen Cemetery, Spencer, NY