Charles N. Richards

Son of wealthy contractor Lysander Richards (1808-1852, Havana, Cuba), in 1860 he was a living with his uncle Orestes and family on their farm at Bleeker in Fulton County, NY. He enlisted in Boston on 20 May 1861, by then a 20 year old clerk in the Dorchester neighborhood, and mustered at Fort Independence in Boston Harbor on 16 July as a Private in Company B, 13th Massachusetts Infantry.

He was wounded by a gunshot to his face in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862 and lost part of his upper jaw and most of his teeth on one side.

He was treated at the Casparis Hotel Hospital in Washington DC and was discharged for wounds there on 26 November 1862. He began receiving a pension for disability in May 1864.

By 1870 and to at least 1910 he was a clerk in the US Capitol in Washington, DC - in 1900 he was keeper of stationery for the US Senate and in 1910 was clerk of the US Senate post office.

His service from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 online from fold3. Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860-1910, and his Pension Card, also from fold3. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture, from a Company B photo album in Scott D Hann's collection, was published in the September/October 2002 issue of Military Images magazine.

He married Mary Geneva Bergman (1851-1932) in December 1875 and they had 5 children.

03/18/1841; Quincy, MA

10/20/1918; Washington , DC; burial in Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, DC