Charles Pomeroy Stone was born on September 30, 1824, in Greenfield, Massachusetts, to Alpheus and Fanny Stone. His father was a doctor who owned $150 of real estate by 1850. He enrolled at the United States Military Academy in 1841 and graduated four years later. In July 1845, he received an appointment as a brevet 2^nd lieutenant in the ordnance department. He spent the next few months teaching geography at West Point.

 

He served in the Mexican American War, and he took part in the siege of Veracruz, the Battle of Chapultepec, and the capture of Mexico City. After the war, he served as assistant ordnance officer at the Watervliet Arsenal in New York. In 1851, he became chief of ordnance for the Pacific Department, and he held the position for the next four years. He was promoted to 1^st lieutenant in February 1853. He married Maria Clary in 1853.

 

He resigned from the army in November 1856, explaining that the “pay [was] inadequate” to support his family. He moved to San Francisco, California, and worked as a banker. The bank, however, failed in 1857, and he spent the next few years in Mexico. He moved to Washington, D.C., around 1860. 

 

In January 1861, he became inspector general of the District of Columbia Militia. Then, in May 1861, he received a commission as colonel of the 14^th United States Infantry. He was promoted to brigadier general that August. He took part in the First Battle of Manassas and the Battle of Ball’s Bluff. In the wake of his overwhelming defeat at Ball’s Bluff, Congress established the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. He was arrested in February 1862 and imprisoned at Fort Lafayette and Fort Hamilton. He was finally released in August 1862. He spent the next few months at home without a military assignment. He eventually became General Nathaniel P. Banks’s chief of staff, and he resigned from the army on September 13, 1864.

 

His wife died in February 1863, and he married Jeanne Stone soon afterward. In the late 1860s, he worked as an engineer for the Dover Mining Company. Then, from 1870 until 1883, he served as chief of staff for the Egyptian army. He returned to America in the early 1880s and worked as an engineer for the Florida Ship Canal Company. He also helped build the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty, and he served as grand marshal for the statue’s dedication ceremony. He died of pneumonia in New York City on January 24, 1887.

 

Image: Charles P. Stone (courtesy Wikicommons)

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