BIO: Alexander Brady Sharpe, Cumberland County, PA

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http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/
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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania.
Containing History of the Counties, Their Townships, Towns, Villages, 
Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc.; Portraits of Early Settlers and 
Prominent Men; Biographies; History of Pennsylvania; Statistical and 
Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc.  Illustrated.  Chicago: Warner, Beers 
& Co., 1886.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/beers/beers.htm
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                                PART II.

             HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. PENNSYLVANIA.

                            CHAPTER XXXVIII.

                          BOROUGH OF CARLISLE.

394  BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES:

  ALEXANDER BRADY SHARPE, Esq., of Carlisle, son of John and Jane 
(McCune) Sharpe, was born in Newton Township, Cumberland County, on the 
12th of August 1827.  His ancestors, paternal, and maternal, were among 
the first settlers in the upper end of the county.  His great-
grandparents on his father's side, Thomas and Margaret (Elder) Sharp, 
were Covenanters, who, because of their religious faith, were driven 
from Scotland to the province of Ulster in the North of Ireland, about 
or shortly after the middle of the seventh century, and resided near 
Belfast, in the County of Antrim, until about the year 1747, when they 
immigrated with their children, consisting of five sons and four 
daughters, to Cumberland County, Penn., and settled in Newton Township.  
His grandfather was Alexander Sharp, of Green Spring, the youngest of 
five sons.  His maternal great-grandparents were James McCune and 
Abigail, his wife, of Newton Township, whose son Samuel married Hannah 
Brady, a daughter of Hugh Brady the second, whose father, Hugh Brady, 
was an emigrant from Enniskillen, and one of the first settlers in that 
portion of the county now embraced in Hopewell Township.  He began his 
studies preparatory to entering college with Joseph Casey the elder, 
father of Hon. Joseph Casey, at Newville, in 1839, and after his death 
continued them at Academia, Juniata County, and completed them with 
Vanleer Davis, at Chambersburg; entered the sophomore class at 
Jefferson College, Cannonsburg, Penn., in 1843, and graduated on the 
23d of September, 1846, with the highest honors of his class.  The 
college was then under the presidency of Rev. Dr. Robert J. 
Breckenridge, and two of his classmates were Hon. William H. West of 
Ohio, and Hon. John M. Kirkpatrick, of Pittsburgh.  On his return from 
college he commenced with study of law with Robert M. Bard, Esq., of 
Chambersburg, and completed his course with Hon. Frederick Watts, of 
Carlisle.  Hugh Gaullagher, Esq., W. M. Biddle, Esq., and Hon. J. H. 
Graham, were the committee appointed to examine him, and on motion of 
the last named he was, on the 21st of November, 1848, admitted to 
practice.  He remained with Judge Watts until the 1st of April, 1849, 
when he opened an office and has since been engaged in the practice of 
his profession, except during the years of the war of the Rebellion, 
when from the 21st of April, 1861, until the 28th of January, 1865 
(less the period from the 27th of December, 1862, to the 28th of 
August, 1863), he was constantly in the service as a private or a 
commissioned officer.  April 21, 1861, he enlisted as a private in 
Company A, Seventh Regiment Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteer Corps, and 
served as such until the 25th of September, when he was commissioned 
second lieutenant of Company E, and appointed adjutant of the regiment.  
On the 4th of December he was relieved from duty with his regiment, 
which was a part of the Second Brigade (Meade's) of McCall's division, 
and ordered to report to Brig.-Gen. Ord, commanding the Third Brigade, 
who had appointed him aide-de-camp.  He joined Gen. Ord the same day 
and served on his personal staff until the General was wounded and 
disabled temporarily for field service, when he resigned.  After Ord's 
recovery he was, at the General's instance, again commissioned a 
captain and assigned to duty with him, where he served until he 
resigned on the 28th of January, 1865.  During the war he was in field 
service in the Army of the Potomac, of the Rappahannock, in the Army of 
the Tennessee, Army of West Virginia, Army of the Gulf, and in the Army 
of the James.  He participated in the engagement at Drainesville, on 
the 20th of December, 1861; the battle of Iuka, September 18 and 20, 
1862; Big Hatchie, October 5, 1862; Burnside's Mine Explosion, July 30, 
1864; Battle of New Market Heights, or Chapin's Farm, and capture of 
Fort Harrison, September 9 and 10, 1864.  He was brevetted and promoted 
to the rank of captain and aide-de-camp, United States Army, for 
gallant and meritorious service at the battle of Drainesville, and on 
the 13th of March, 1865 (on the recommendation of Gens. Ord, Meade and 
Grant) received the brevet ranks of major, lieutenant-colonel and 
colonel United States Volunteers for gallant conduct at Petersburg and 
the various affairs before Richmond, Va.  On the 19th of December, 
1854, Col. Sharpe married Katherine Mears Blaney, a daughter of the 
late Maj. George Blaney, Engineer Corps, United States Army.  He never 
held an office, and never was a candidate for any, political, judicial 
or otherwise, 

395  BOROUGH OF CARLISLE.

but he has political convictions coeval with the existence of his 
party, from which he has never turned away, a sense of professional and 
social duty which has never yet caused him to be ashamed, and an 
abiding faith in the doctrines of the church of his fathers.