submitted by Megan Phyfe Barrett Myers
Noble Myers and Roxanna Cummings gave birth to their third of five children on April 12, 1827, in Pownal, Bennington County, Vermont, whom they named Charles Henry Myers. On January 5, 1850, Reverend Elder Tinkham, a Baptist minister, married Charles to Mary Ann Varnum, daughter of Rensselaer Varnum and Eliza A. LeBarron, in the minister’s home in North White Creek, Washington County, New York. This marriage was a surprise to Mary Ann’s parents, as the couple never told them that they were getting married until shortly afterwards on that day. Charles, who had blue eyes and brown hair, was a farmer for the duration of his life, and Mary Ann, a homemaker, had five children with him, Henry C., Roxanna, Eliza A., George R., and Clara A.
As Charles was a strong, well man, seldom living a sick day, he decided to enlist with Captain Beach’s Company F, 16th Regiment, New York Brigade, Heavy Artillery Division in Hoosick, Rensselaer County, New York, on December 28, 1863. Subsequent to voluntarily enlisting into the military as a private, he mustered into the United States Service at Troy, Rensselaer County, New York, on January 18, 1864. He was assigned into duty as an attached recruit on May 16th, 1864, by special order of Col. Joseph J. Morrison. Under Morrison’s command, Charles traveled south, reaching his destination in Yorktown, Virginia, by July 1864. A short time afterward, Charles was continuously in and out of the field hospitals. At one point, he was admitted into a field hospital for two months and declared unfit for duty by the US Army surgeons. Charles had contracted TB, which was called consumption at the time.
Charles was honorably discharged from the War of the Southern Rebellion, almost two years after his enlistment, at Washington, D. C., on the 21st day of August in 1865 and mustered out of the United States Service under command by Major Wilson on August 22, 1865, at Fort Williams. In-laws John Varnum and Aiden Varnum traveled home to Caldwell, New York, with Charles.
For obvious reasons, Charles was very sick and suffering. He not only had TB, but his body became very rheumatic during the war, and his joints were continually swollen. One leg was so lame that doctors decided to amputate it above the knee. Aiden Varnum was present during the amputation on January 7, 1875. Charles lived for about three months after this painful operation and died one week after his 58th birthday in 1875 in Caldwell, know known as the Village of Lake George, Warren County, New York. Mary Ann was left a widow for two years. She passed away in May of 1877, also from TB.
Charles is the great-great grandfather of several locals, including Terrance Paul Myers of Grafton.
The above information is supported by Charles Myers’ Civil War pension file, birth records, and marriage records.
