Battery B’s Favorite Son Charles T. Straight

Charles Tillinghast Straight

Charles Tillinghast Straight was born in Exeter Rhode Island on Oct. 5 1861. His mother Angeline died a month later and shortly after that, his father, Albert Straight, would leave for service in the War. Charles and his sister, Laura, would be split up and raised by relatives. Although Charles was too young to receive letters from his father, his sister did. In many of theses letters he would tell Laura that when she spoke to her little brother to tell him that his father sends his love and that he thinks of them both often. He thought some day he could tell them of the many things he has seen and experienced. That day would not materialize, for Albert would die in Virginia in November 1863.

There is not much that is known of Charles’ childhood, but at some point he was introduced to the Veterans of the Battery and became very involved with their functions. In the 1890’s he became one of the first postmen in Pawtucket R.I., and sometime in the early 1900’s took a position with the Pawtucket Water Works. He also married
Ella Horton, and they lived at 15 Jackson Street in Pawtucket. The house still stands to this day.

Sgt. Albert Straight

One can only assume that one of the highlights of his life came when he accompanied the Veterans of the Battery down to Gettysburg for the fiftieth anniversary of the battle. He finally saw and stood on that field, where his father and these old men once stood as young men and boys. They stood and held what could have been the doorway into the Nation’s Capitol. We can only imagine the stories that must have flowed once they saw their old comrades and the hills and stone walls they once defended. It has been said that even they could not believe the things that they did, after seeing the place where so much destruction was done and where so many of their friends were left behind.

Now, Charles’ father must have seemed like a superman to him. The man he only saw in pictures, and had heard about in stories, was now bigger than life itself. These old men, whom he had a hard time visualizing as boys, were the only link to the father he would never know. In later years in a letter to one of the Veteran’s widows, he would introduce himself as being the son of Sgt. Straight. He also said he never met his dad because he never came home from the war.

Every August 13th, the day the Battery was mustered in to service, the Veterans would have a reunion. These reunions would be held at wonderful places of entertainment and great food. They would start with a business meeting. It was at one of these meetings where it was announced that the Governing Committee of the Battery had nominated Charles as Secretary and Treasurer of the Veterans of Battery “B” 1st R.I.L.A. Charles was stunned. His answer was that he had never been a member, and therefore did not have the right to hold such a position of honor. In response, they said that they could elect anyone they wanted. And so it came to be that the young man, whose interest in the Civil War grew from a desire to learn more about a father he had never known, became not only the secretary and treasurer of the Veterans Association, but one of the leading historians on the Civil War in Rhode Island.

Veterans of Battery "B" in 1890 at one of the post war reunions, Charles can be seen kneeling from front row left.

As secretary and treasurer Charles was involved in the everyday workings of the Association. There was much correspondence to be done, locating and keeping in touch with as many surviving members of the Battery as possible. The men had moved all over the country and the world. Their lives and occupations greatly varied. They were spread out from coast to coast and even as far away as South Africa. However every August 13th they would come from far off places to be with their old comrades of Battery “B”. In his correspondence with the men, the letters and contents covered many subjects from questions of the circumstances surrounding the Gettysburg Gun, to as mundane as where he could borrow a boat for fishing. In one such letter, he asked Clark Woodmansee if he would talk to an old friend about borrowing a small boat to use for fishing on Wickaboxet Pond. At the end of the letter he made sure to mention that 29 years ago on this day you were on that field of honor at Gettysburg. He always made it a point in all his letters to make some reference to the Civil War.

As the reunion came and went and the old veterans started to pass on, Charles’ duties took on a more solemn tone. In a letter to the family of one veteran who had passed away, he writes, “I have sent along the small silk flag and ribbon to be placed on the casket. I will not attend the funeral, for I can do no good and cannot bear to see these men die off.” The happy times of clam bakes and reunions where old war stories were told, now slowly came to a close. In the minutes of one reunion in the late 1920’s, where only a handful of the old men showed up, it states that not much business could be done, for some of the officers of the Association were not present. Following this statement in large type were the words THE BATTERY VETERANS’ ASSOCIATION HAS NOT DISSOLVED.
The last of the old men passed on in 1936. In his forward thinking Charles had made multiple copies of letters, documents, news clippings, and scrapbooks in an attempt to secure the Battery boys’ place in history. One can only imagine his fear that all this history, all his life’s work would disappear or be forgotten.

Charles Tillinghast Straight died on April 18, 1940, only four years after the last Battery boy had passed away--boys who were already in their teens and twenties when he was born.

Friend Charles, your work has not been lost. The foundation you laid so long ago has been built upon and continues to be built upon. It has brought us on a long journey, where we have probably walked in your footsteps without even knowing it. Where it will lead us, we do not know, for we leave it in your hand to guide us to the end.