Charles Benjamin Land was born on June 13, 1846, in Carbrooke, Norfolk, England, the son of Benjamin (1824-1898) and Charlotte (Sessoms, d. 1851).
Sometime after his wife died in 1851 in Carbrooke, England, Benjamin remarried to Mary (b. 1824), presumably in England where she too was born. In any case, the family immigrated to North America sometime between 1848 and 1854 when they were living in Canada. And between 1854 and 1859 the family moved to Michigan, and by 1860 Charles was living with his family and his father Benjamin was working as a mason in Dallas, Clinton County.
Charles stood 5’8” with blue eyes, light hair and a light complexion and was an 18-year-old farmer possibly living in Clinton County when he enlisted in Company E on January 5, 1864, at Corunna, Shiawassee County for 3 years, crediting Bailey, St. Clair County, and was mustered the same day. (Curiously, quite a large number of Clinton County men made up Company E.) He joined the Regiment on March 27 and at one point tented with Asa Daniels who was also from Clinton County. (In fact in 1872 Charles would provide an affidavit in the pension claim Asa’s family.)
Charles was wounded on May 12, 1864, at Spotsylvania, Virginia, and probably hospitalized soon afterwards. He was still absent wounded when he was transferred to Company F, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864, and he remained absent wounded through November of 1864. He eventually returned to the regiment, however. According to Asa Daniels, writing sometime in late December of 1864, “Charles Land is here to the regiment and well and tough.” He was mustered out on July 5, 1865, at Jeffersonville, Indiana.
After the war, Charles returned to Michigan, eventually settling in Clinton County. He was married to Michigan native Jennie Cornelia Case (1846-1911) on April 26, 1866, in Riley, Clinton County, and they had at least two children: Nettie (b. 1867) and Alfred (b. 1870).
By 1870 he was working as a farmer and living with his wife and children in Riley. (His father was living in Almer, Tuscola County in 1870.) By 1880 he was working as a farmer and still living in Riley with his wife and children. In fact he lived in Riley for many years: Charles was living in Riley in 1888, 1890, 1894 and 1897, in Dewitt in 1911 and in St. Johns in 1915. In 1911 Charles married his second wife Emma Baker (b. 1865) of Watertown, Clinton County.
In 1886 he applied for and received a pension (no. 490365). Charles was also a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association.
Charles died, possibly a widower, on February 4, 1924, in Dewitt, Clinton County, and was buried in Wacousta cemetery in Clinton County.
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