Charles Brother (Image courtesy of Marg Peterson)
About Charles Brother
In 1862 18-year-old Charles Brother of Bath, New York, enlisted in the Marines to serve the Union in the Civil War. He hoped to stick with his friends, the other boys of Bath. He hoped to win a prize ship full of cotton. He fought against the mobs in the New York Draft Riots and in the Battle of Mobile Bay.
Brother was born on August 10, 1844 and, after the death of his baby sister, he became the youngest child of a large, active, and prominent family, who slammed screen doors and lighted the many windows at 22 West Morris Street.
Pratt-Brother Home at 22 West Morris Street, Bath, NY
Charles Brother’s service chronology:
13 Oct 1862 ▪︎ Enlisted at Marine Barracks, Brooklyn Navy Yard
4 Nov 1862 ▪︎ Transferred to USS Vanderbilt
6 Nov 1862 ▪︎ Searched for CSS Alabama
4 Jan 1863 ▪︎ USS Vanderbilt touched at Havana, Cuba
13 Jan 1863 ▪︎ USS Vanderbilt at St. Thomas
25 Feb 1863 ▪︎ USS Vanderbilt took Steamer as prize The Peterhoff
26 Feb 1863 ▪︎ Assigned to take Peterhoff (prize)
28 Mar 1863 ▪︎ Peterhoff arrived in NY
31 Mar 1863 ▪︎ Assigned to Brooklyn Navy Yard
6 Jun 1863 ▪︎ Transferred to the North Carolina in New York Harbor
25 Jul 1863 ▪︎ Fought in the Draft Riots while stationed at the Barracks
3 Aug 1863 ▪︎ Returned to USRS North Carolina
15 Dec 1863 ▪︎ Transferred to USS Hartford
5 Jan 1864 ▪︎ USS Hartford departed NY
17 Jan 1864 ▪︎ USS Hartford arrived in Pensacola, FL
19 Jan 1864 ▪︎ USS Hartford sent off to tour to New Orleans
9 Feb 1864 ▪︎ USS Hartford sent back to Pensacola, FL
20 Dec 1864 ▪︎ Assigned to Marine Barracks, Brooklyn NY
22 Jan 1865 ▪︎ Furloughed; Brother visited Bath, NY
9 Feb 1865 ▪︎ Assigned to Marine Barracks, Boston, NY
20 Jun 1865 ▪︎ Transferred back to Navy Yard, Boston
21 Oct 1865 ▪︎ Hired a substitute and returned home.
After the war Brother moved to Iowa to farm and later became a railway postal clerk. He raised a family, as best as he could, and died in Indiana in 1917.
USS Hartford (Library of Congress)