Charles B. Mann was born on April 20, 1838, in Somerville, New Jersey, to John Mann and Eliza Bonnell. His father was a lawyer who owned $10,000 of real estate by 1850. He grew up and attended school in Bridgewater, New Jersey, before beginning work as a store clerk. He moved to Muskegon, Michigan, in 1857, but he moved to Elkhart, Indiana, the following year.

 

He enlisted in the Union army in 1861 and mustered into Company C of the 9^th Indiana Infantry. He mustered out after his three-month term of enlistment expired. He received a commission as a 1^st lieutenant in Company G of the 74^th Indiana Infantry on August 5, 1862. The regiment took part in the Battle of Perryville, the Battle of Stones River, and the Battle of Chickamauga. His arm was reportedly shattered at Chickamauga. According to one account, a “bullet struck him in the pit of his left elbow as he was holding high the colors after having rallied the men of his regiment.”

 

He eventually recovered and rejoined the regiment, and he participated in the Atlanta campaign, the March to the Sea, and the Carolinas campaign. He was promoted to captain on February 7, 1863, then to major on September 1, 1864, and to lieutenant colonel on January 1, 1865. He received a brevet promotion to colonel on March 13, 1865.

 

Mann returned to Elkhart after the war and resumed his work as a dry goods merchant. By 1870, he owned $3,000 of personal property. He moved back to Muskegon in the 1880s and helped open the clothing firm Mann & Pierce. He married May B. Folsom on February 26, 1885, and they had two children: Douglas, born around 1889; and Dorothy, born around 1895. He remained in Muskegon for the rest of his life, and he died there of angina on October 19, 1908.

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