CHARLES ELITHARP – 25th CAVALRYPATROLLED THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY - According to his Muster Roll Abstract, Charles P. Elitharp was born in Hague in Warren County, across Lake Champlain and a few miles southwest of his ancestral home of Bridport, VT. Adding two years to his age of sixteen, he enlisted in the 25th Cavalry in Plattsburgh but his enlistment was credited to Moriah, NY, also near Bridport. He has another Muster Roll Abstract for the 2nd Cavalry in the name of Elithorp for his enlistment on the same day, but it was never activated.When Charles first enlisted on September 7, 1864, he was recorded as Ellenthorp and went to the Shenandoah Valley in mid-October to join 25th’s companies that were already there. From October until the roads were too bad to travel in late December, the regiment patrolled the Valley and had eight engagements with the enemy. Their bloodiest battle was at Newtown on November 12th, where they had four mortally wounded, sixteen wounded who recovered and two who were captured by the enemy.In January 1865, they were at Columbia Furnace about forty miles south of Winchester in the Valley. They stayed in the general area and fought in four more battles before the end of the war, ending up in Staunton, VA.In April 1865, they were assigned to the Cavalry Division, Army of West Virginia, and was finally mustered out and discharged at Hart's Island, in New York Harbor, on June 27, 1865.After the war, Charles married Frances Wright in Vermont and they lived in Bridport for the rest of their lives while he supported them as a teamster and grocer. She died of a stroke in 1919 and was buried in the Central Cemetery there. He then married Eva Shaw. Charles died in 1925 and was buried beside his first wife.
