BIO: Dr. Charles Edward GOLDSBOROUGH, Straban Township, Adams County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis Copyright 2005. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/adams/ _______________________________________________ History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co., 1886 _______________________________________________ Part III, History of Adams County, Pages 508-509 DR. CHARLES EDWARD GOLDSBOROUGH, Hunterstown, was born December 16, 1834, at Graceham, Frederick Co., Md., and studied medicine in this father’s office and at the University of Maryland. His family on the father’s side were Anglo- Saxon, and on his mother’s Scotch. His paternal ancestors were seated at Goldsborough Hall, near Knaresborough, Yorkshire, England, on several cates of land granted to the head of the family by William the Conqueror. The head of the family in America was an officer in the British Army, who settled near Cambridge, Dorchester Co., Md., in early colonial times. Robert Goldsborough, the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a distinguished black- letter lawyer, and although educated at the Middle Temple, in London, and married there Miss Sarah Yerbury, he headed the Maryland Delegation in the First and Second Continental Congresses that met in Carpenter’s Hall, Philadelphia, in 1774-76, against the mother country. He supported and voted for Richard Henry Lee’s resolution, July 2, and also the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776; but as the Declaration was ordered to be engrossed and was not signed until August 2, following, a sickness, that soon after proved fatal, prevented his being present at that time, and it was signed by Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, who succeeded him, but was not a member when the bill was passed, July 4. His son William, also a lawyer by profession, married Miss Sallie Worthington, of Annapolis, Md., and located at Frederick City after the Revolutionary war, where, in May, 1804, Leander W., his youngest son, was born, who married Sarah Ann, daughter of Capt. Perry Dunkin, who for many years sailed from Baltimore, and was finally lost in the ship “Cervantes.” From this marriage six sons and one daughter were born, Charles Edward being the third child. After crossing the plains with an ox-team, during the immigration to California, in 1853, he returned via Cape Horn, in 1854, and commenced the practice of medicine in Hunterstown, Adams Co., Penn., in 1855. March 4, 1857, he married Mary McC. Neely, daughter of the late Capt. John Neely, by whom he had two daughters: Grace Annie, born January 8, 1858, and now married to James F. Bell, and Mary McConaughy, born March 4, 1860, and died August 31, 1860. His wife dying March 10, 1860, he entered the United States Army at Frederick City, Md., soon after the battle of Ball’s Bluff, and assisted in establishing the United States General Hospital at that place. Upon the invasion of Maryland by Gen. Lee he was captured, September 6, 1862, but, upon Lee evacuating the city, was released and did efficient service after the battle of Antietam, as executive officer, in establishing hospitals for the wounded at Frederick. At the battle of Winchester, Va., June 15, 1863, he was again captured on the field at Carter’s Woods, by his brother, William, who was serving as major of the Second Maryland Infantry, Confederate States Army, and sent to Libby prison, where he was confined a prisoner until November following, when he received the following parole: “Richmond, October 20, 1863. “Dr. Charles E. Goldsborough has permission to go North, upon his giving his parole to honor to return to Richmond, Va., within forty days, if he does not secure the acquiescence of the Federal authorities in the following propositions, to wit: That all surgeons on both sides shall be unconditionally released, except such as have charges preferred against them. Such proposition is to be understood as embracing not only those already in captivity, but all surgeons who may hereafter be captured. Ro. Ould, “Agent of Exchange.” (Indorsed.) “I accept the conditions proposed in the above instrument of writing, and hereby give my parole of honor to comply with its requirements. “C. E. Goldsborough, “First Assistant Surgeon Fifth Regiment Maryland Infantry.” Aided by Sec. S. P. Chase and others, he succeeded in effecting the release of about 100 Federal surgeons confined in Libby prison, and more than as many Confederate surgeons confined in Fort McHenry; but through the opposition of Gen. Grant and Edwin M. Stanton he was unable to do anything toward effecting a general exchange of prisoners as was hoped. In December, 1863, he was assigned to duty at Fort Delaware, where he found his brother William, who had been severly wounded and captured at Gettysburg, and Eugene, belonging to Harry Gilmore’s battalion of cavalry, both prisoners of war. Eugene died a prisoner, and William, after being sent to Morris Island and Fort Pulaski, was returned to Fort Delaware and released in July, 1865, after being a prisoner more than two years. In the spring of 1864 Dr. Goldsborough went with his regiment to Bermuda Hundred, on the James River, and joined forces of Gen. B. F. Butler, and assisted in the siege of Petersburg, where he was wounded July 6, 1864, and sent to Chesapeake Hospital. After his recovery, being unfit for field duty because of disability contracted in the service, he was assigned to duty at Lincoln Hospital, in Washington, D. C., where he remained until August, 1865, when he returned to Hunterstown and resumed his practice, and engaged extensively in farming. November 14, 1866, he married Miss Alice E., daughter of Jesse McCreery, and had ten children, as follows: Eugene Worthington, born April 9, 1868; Alice Lenore, born January 23, 1870; Virginia G., born August 29, 1871; Fannie Josephine, born May 3, 1874; Charles Edward, born September 15, 1875; Martha Estelle, born March 25, 1877; Sara Neva, born September 8, 1878; Vera S., born May 26, 1880; Robert McCreery, born September 3, 1881; and died March 4, 1883; and William Worthington, born March 29, 1883. In politics Dr. Goldsborough, although descended from old Federal stock, early in life embraced the faith of Jefferson and Jackson, and always espoused Democratic principles; but when the party became contaminated with Hamiltonianism, he refused to be bound by its conventions, and voted independently for such candidates as nearest conformed to his political views. He regards the “mugwump” as the offspring of political adultery. He is a member of Corp. Skelly Post, No. 9, Gettysburg, G. A. R.