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Charles Pomeroy Stone was a career United States Army officer, civil engineer, and surveyor.
Background
Charles was born on September 30, 1824 at Greenfield, Massachussets, United States, the son of Dr. Alpheus Fletcher Stone and Fanny (Cushing) Stone, widow of George Arms. He was a descendant of Gregory Stone who settled in Watertown, Massachussets, in 1635.
Education
Graduating at West Point in 1845, he served with the siege train throughout Scott's campaign in Mexico.
Career
Resigning in 1856, being then a first lieutenant, Stone was employed by a private association as chief of a commission for the exploration of the Mexican state of Sonora. His Notes on the State of Sonora was published in 1861.
On April 16 of that year he was mustered into service as colonel, District of Columbia Volunteers; he was reappointed to the regular army as colonel, 14th Infantry, in July, and in August was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, both commissions antedated to May. His reputation stood high, and he had every prospect of a brilliant career, until the disaster at Ball's Bluff, near Leesburg, Virginia, October 21, 1861.
With the recklessness common in brave but inexperienced officers, Colonel Edward D. Baker involved a regiment of Stone's command in a skirmish with the Confederates under General Nathan G. Evans, which resulted in numerous casualties and Baker's death. The public was seized with a "victim-hunting mania", and as Baker was a senator many of his colleagues were eager to avenge his death upon somebody. Their choice was Stone. Hints of incompetency were succeeded by whispers of treason.
The display of credulity and cruelty which followed was hardly surpassed even in the World War. An investigator could solemnly set down, for example, the statement of a witness that he had heard the Confederate adjutant general say that General Evans said that Stone was a fine man and a gentleman. It is recorded that Stone "is too well spoken of in Leesburg to be all right" (War Department records).
The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War heard many witnesses, but refused their names to Stone, refused him their testimony, refused to tell him what acts were charged against him. He was arrested at midnight, February 8, 1862, and conveyed to Fort Lafayette, rising from the waters of New York harbor, where he was held in solitary confinement for fifty days.
On the representations of his physician he was then transferred to Fort Hamilton, on land, where he was still kept in solitary confinement but was allowed to exercise under guard. His appeals to the War Department to know the charges against him were unanswered. Shame at last began to stir in Congress, though not in the War Department.
He was released, August 16, 1862, in reluctant compliance with an act of Congress, general in terms, but passed with this particular case in mind. The Joint Committee, the Secretary of War, and General McClellan have mutually blamed each other for the imprisonment. There is guilt enough for all. Stone was left unemployed until May 1863, when he was sent to General Banks, at the latter's request, and served under him at Port Hudson and in the Red River campaign.
On April 4, 1864, for no cause stated or now known, he was mustered out of his volunteer commission and as a colonel of the regular army was again left unemployed. He was finally assigned to the Army of the Potomac; but, sick and despairing, he resigned from the army, September 13, 1864.
From 1865 to 1869 he was engineer and superintendent for the Dover Mining Company, Goochland County, Virginia. From 1870 to 1883 he served in the Egyptian army, becoming chief of staff and lieutenant-general. After his return home he was chief engineer for a year of the Florida Ship Canal Company.
He was an original member of the Aztec Club of 1847.
Connections
He was twice married: first, to Maria Louisa Clary, daughter of General Robert E. Clary; and, second, to Annie Jeannie Stone, daughter of John H. Stone of Louisiana. They had two daughters and a son, John Stone Stone, who later became a pioneer in the field of wireless telegraphy.