b. 11/10/1840 Danville, Vermont. d. 16/05/1910 Portland, Maine.
DATE OF MOH ACTION: 06/04/1865 Deatonsville (Sailors Creek), Virginia.
Charles P Mattocks MOH
Civil War Union Brevet Brigadier General, Medal of Honor Recipient. He was commissioned as a 1st Lieutenant in Company A, 17th Maine Volunteer Infantry on August 2, 1862. He was promoted to Captain on December 4, 1862, to Major on December 22, 1863, and Colonel on May 15, 1865. He was awarded the CMOH for his bravery at the Battle of Sailors Creek, Virginia on April 6, 1865 while serving as a Major.
His Medal was issued on March 29, 1899. On March 13, 1865 he was brevetted Brigadier General, US Volunteers for “faithful and meritorious services”, and he was honorably mustered out on June 4, 1865.
Mattocks attended Harvard Law School, studied under Edward Fox, and graduated in 1867. On June 27, 1871, he married Ella R. Robinson, daughter of Augustus Robinson, in Portland, Maine. He then opened a law office in Portland, and in 1869, became county attorney for Cumberland County, Maine. He held the position from 1870 to 1873. During October 1882, Morril v. Jones appeared in front of the Supreme Court of the United States. Mattocks represented the defendant, Treasurer Lot M. Morrill, who lost the case. Mattocks maintained a large farm in Baldwin, Maine.
Mattocks was an active member of the executive committee of the Union Soldiers and Sailors, a post-war veterans group campaigning against the Democratic Party. Mattocks was a Freemason, as well as an Adjutant General and Department Commander in the Grand Army of the Republic in Maine. He was also one of the first members of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. Mattocks died at 17 Lewis Street in Portland, Maine, on May 16, 1910, from nephritis. He was buried in Evergreen Cemetery with full military honors. After his death, his wife, Ella Mattocks, was paid $50 monthly as part of Charles’s military pension. In 1955, the Charles P. Mattocks Scholarship was established at Bowdoin College. The Brown Memorial Library in Baldwin, Maine, also home to the Baldwin Historical Society, was established in 1907 based on a tract of land originally donated by Mattocks.
MOH CITATION:
Displayed extraordinary gallantry in leading a charge of his regiment which resulted in the capture of a large number of prisoners and a stand of colors.
BURIAL LOCATION: EVERGREEN CEMETERY, PORTLAND, MAINE.
SECTION R, LOT 845.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: FAMILY.
