Charles C. Mills

Charles C. Mills was born in 1837 in New York.

Charles left New York and headed westward, eventually settling in western Michigan. He was married to Michigan native Laura or Lucy Bennett (b. 1841), on January 2, 1858, in Michigan, and they had at least two children: Frederick (b. 1859) and Charles H. (b. 1862). (Laura was the sister of George W. and Jonas Bennett who would also enlist in the Third Michigan.) By 1860 Charles was working as a clerk and he and his family were living with his in-laws, Cyrus Bennett and his family, in Brooks, Newaygo County; and he may also have worked as a day laborer at the Chubb Hotel in Muskegon, Muskegon County in 1860 -- as did Jonas Bennett.

Charles was 24 years old and living in Newaygo or Muskegon County when he enlisted in Company E on May 13, 1861. He was probably wounded in the shoulder at Fair Oaks, Virginia on May 31, 1862, and by June of 1862 was in the hospital at Bottom’s Bridge, Virginia, suffering from rheumatism. He was listed as a pioneer absent sick in the hospital in July of 1862 through August, from September of 1862 to March of 1863 he was serving with the Third Brigade wagon and ambulance trains, and in May he was attached to the Third Brigade Quartermaster, probably employed in the trains.

By July Charles was in Mower hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and he remained absent sick from July of 1863 through February of 1864. He was transferred to either the Fifty-third company, Second Battalion Veterans’ Reserve Corps or the One hundred sixty-fourth company, Second battalion, VRC, on March 31, 1864, at Philadelphia, possibly suffering from chronic hemorrhoids, and was mustered out on June 9, 1864, at Philadelphia.

After his discharge from the army Charles eventually returned to western Michigan. By 1880 he was working as the city marshal and living with his wife and children in Evart, Osceola County. By 1888 and 1894 he was living in Evart, Osceola County, and may very well have lived out the remainder of his life in Evart.

In 1879 he applied for and received a pension (no. 415553).

Charles died in Evart of pneumonia on March 17, 1902 and was buried in Forest Hill cemetery in Osceola Township.