Charles Leaman
Charles Leaman was born on September 3, 1845, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to Henry and Catharine Leaman. His father was a farmer who owned $27,000 of real estate and $1,960 of personal property by 1860. Leaman grew up and attended school in Paradise, Pennsylvania.
 
He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps on December 5, 1862, and he served as a private aboard the USS Philadelphia. As he explained to his family, he “had always had an idea of joining the army.” An advertisement in a local newspaper, however, persuaded him to join the Marines instead. The Philadelphia became the flagship of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, and Leaman spent most of his time patrolling the coast of South Carolina.
 
In October 1864, he confessed that “I cannot say I am excited” about the upcoming presidential election. Nonetheless, he was “much interested as to how the election goes for I think if the right man is elected it will satisfy them that the North is determand to fight it out with out asking for any terms from armed Rebels.”
 
Many of his shipmates supported Democratic candidate George B. McClellan, but Leaman bitterly opposed him. A Democratic victory, he explained, would “sell the labors of our Armies for the past three years and more for a nominal and perishable peace.” Leaman refused to “vote for any man that thinks of peace untill the south acknowledge there error by laying down their arms and are willing to join us with the spirit of ’76.” He cheered the news of Abraham Lincoln’s reelection, which “shows we are still a United States.”  
 
In April 1865, he rejoiced that “The War is Over. I can not find words to express my gratitude.” He expressed great ambivalence, however, toward African Americans’ freedom. On April 15, he listened to speeches by abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison, Theodore Tilton, and Henry Wilson. “The audience,” he reported, “was nearly all colored, and the addresses…[did not] suit the occation in my opinion.” He argued that African Americans were not yet “fit for freedom,” and he dismissed the commission of Black officers as “to[o] premature.” The “day for such things may come,” he wrote, “but the colored man requires a preparation in every way before such responsability can be placed upon him.”
 
He was promoted to corporal in November 1865, and he was discharged in December 1865. Leaman returned to Paradise after the war and attended college. He became a Presbyterian minister around 1874, and he moved to China soon afterward to work as a missionary. He married Lucy Crouch around 1879, and they had at least two children: Mary, born around 1880; and Lucy, born on November 6, 1881. The family visited Pennsylvania in 1882, but they returned to China in May 1883. As Leaman explained, he felt it his duty to “preach among the heathen the unsearchable riches of Christ.” They fled to Tokyo, Japan, during the Boxer Rebellion.
 
His wife died in the 1910s, and he eventually returned to Paradise. By 1920, he was living in his brother Henry’s household in Paradise. He died sometime after 1920.
4752
DATABASE CONTENT
(4752)Leaman, Charles1845-09-03
  • Conflict Side: Union
  • Role: Marine
  • Rank in: Private
  • Rank out: Corporal
  • Rank highest: Corporal
  • Gender: Male
  • Race: White

Documents - Records: 96

  • (13284) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 19 October 1863
  • (13285) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 29 October 1863
  • (13424) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 6 February 1864
  • (13425) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman and Rosh Leaman, 22 February 1864
  • (13426) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 3 March 1864
  • (13427) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 14 March 1864
  • (13428) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 24 March 1864
  • (13429) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 1 April 1864
  • (13430) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 27 April 1864
  • (13431) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 3 May 1864
  • (13432) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 19 May 1864
  • (13433) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 28 May 1864
  • (13434) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 6 June 1864
  • (13650) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman and Rosh Leaman, 21 June 1864
  • (13651) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 7 July 1864
  • (13652) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 16 July 1864
  • (13653) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 25 July 1864
  • (13654) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 5 August 1864
  • (13655) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 16 August 1864
  • (13656) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 2 September 1864
  • (13657) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 19 September 1864
  • (13659) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 20 October 1864
  • (13660) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 26 October 1864
  • (13661) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 12 November 1864
  • (13662) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 21 November 1864
  • (13663) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 29 November 1864
  • (13681) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 24 January 1865
  • (13682) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 31 January 1865
  • (13683) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 9 February 1865
  • (13684) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 19 February 1865
  • (13685) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 24 February 1865
  • (13697) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 6 March 1865
  • (13700) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 13 March 1865
  • (13701) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 21 March 1865
  • (13702) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 28 March 1865
  • (13703) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 6 April 1865
  • (13704) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 3 December 1863
  • (13716) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Catharine A. Leaman, 9 December 1862
  • (13717) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 22 December 186X
  • (13718) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Henry Leaman, 20 December 1862
  • (13719) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 18 January 1863
  • (13720) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 30 January 1863
  • (13721) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 13 February 1863
  • (13722) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 20 February 1863
  • (13723) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 6 March 1863
  • (13724) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 16 March 1863
  • (13725) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 30 December 1862
  • (13737) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 16 December 1863
  • (13738) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 26 February 1863
  • (13739) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Catharine A. Leaman, 28 March 1863
  • (13740) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 9 April 1863
  • (13741) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 13 April 1863
  • (13742) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 29 April 186X
  • (13744) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 5 May 1863
  • (13745) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 11 May 186X
  • (13746) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 26 May 1863
  • (13747) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 1 June 1863
  • (13748) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 9 June 1863
  • (13749) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 26 December 1863
  • (13750) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 15 June 1863
  • (13751) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 13 July 1863
  • (13752) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 10 September 1863
  • (13753) [recipient] ~ Mary E. Leaman to Charles Leaman, 3 October 1863
  • (13754) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 7 October 1863
  • (13755) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 14 April 1865
  • (13756) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Henry Leaman Jr., 19 April 1865
  • (13766) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 22 April 1865
  • (13767) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 1 May 1865
  • (13768) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 14 January 1864
  • (13769) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 15 May 1865
  • (13779) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Rosh Leaman, 16 May 1865
  • (13780) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 23 May 1865
  • (13781) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 2 June 1865
  • (13782) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 10 June 1865
  • (13783) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 21 July 1865
  • (13784) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to John Leaman, 19 August 1865
  • (13785) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to John Leaman, 29 August 1865
  • (13786) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 4 September 1865
  • (13787) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 14 January 1864
  • (13788) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 12 September 1865
  • (13789) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 15 September 1865
  • (13790) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 7 October 1865
  • (13791) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 14 October 1865
  • (13792) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 24 October 1865
  • (13793) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 7 November 1865
  • (14116) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Unknown, 12 July 1865
  • (14119) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 11 October 1864
  • (15373) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 3 November 1863
  • (15374) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 25 November 1863
  • (15375) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 7 December 1864
  • (15376) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 15 December 1864
  • (15377) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 23 December 1864
  • (15378) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 1 January 1865
  • (15379) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 4 January 1865
  • (15380) [writer] ~ Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 17 September 186X
  • (15383) [recipient] ~ Charles Leaman to George D. Slaymaker, 16 June 1870

People - Records: 7

  • (4753) Leaman, Mary E. is the [sibling of] (4752) Leaman, Charles
  • (4837) Leaman, Rosh is the [sibling of] (4752) Leaman, Charles
  • (4868) Leaman, Catharine Amanda is the [parent of] (4752) Leaman, Charles
  • (4869) Leaman, Henry is the [parent of] (4752) Leaman, Charles
  • (4934) Leaman, Henry Jr. is the [sibling of] (4752) Leaman, Charles
  • (5535) Leaman, John is the [sibling of] (4752) Leaman, Charles
  • (5539) Slaymaker, George Duffield is the [cousin of] (4752) Leaman, Charles

Places - Records: 1

  • (1921) [birth] ~ Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Show in Map

Regiments - Records: 1

  • (1092) [enlisted] ~ Union Marine Corps
SOURCES

1850, 1860, 1870, and 1920 United States Federal Censuses, available from Ancestry.com; Consular Registration Certificates, 1907-1918, available from Ancestry.com; Marine Corps Muster Rolls, 1798-1958, available from Fold3.com; The Semi-Weekly New Era (Lancaster, PA), 4 November 1882, 5 May 1883, 11 July 1900; The Lancaster (PA) Examiner, 18 July 1900; Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 11 October 1864, DL1867.029, Nau Collection; Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 20 October 1864, DL1867.030, Nau Collection; Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 21 November 1864, DL1867.033, Nau Collection; Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 22 December 1862, DL1867.051, Nau Collection; Charles Leaman to Mary E. Leaman, 14 April 1865, DL1867.076, Nau Collection; Charles Leaman to Henry Leaman Jr., 19 April 1865, DL1867.077, Nau Collection