Charles William Personius was born on February 8, 1840, in Caroline, New York, to William Personius and Julia Almira Voorhis. His father was a farmer who owned $4,380 of real estate and $900 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Caroline, and by 1860, he was working as a farm laborer.
He enlisted in the Union army on August 25, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in Company G of the 50th New York Engineers. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 10 inches tall, with black hair and black eyes. The regiment took part in the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Battle of Gettysburg, the Overland Campaign, the siege of Petersburg, and the Appomattox campaign. He was promoted to corporal on February 16, 1863, and to sergeant on March 4, 1864. In March 1865, he "hope[d] the time is not far distance when peace shall be proclaimed throughout the whole once United States." He wrote, however, that he "dare[d] not look for an early settlement for fear I shall be disappointed. I thought last June [1864] that the campaign we was then going through would finish up the war but another winter has passed and we are about to engage in another campaign which may prove as hard as the last one." He mustered out on June 13, 1865.
Personius returned to Caroline after the war and married a woman named Marcia. He worked as a miller, and by 1870, he owned $4,000 of real estate and $500 of personal property. His wife probably died in the 1870s, and he married Mary C. Reed around 1880. The couple apparently had no children. They lived in Caroline, and he worked as a cartman and farmer. He died in 1924.