Charles Remond Douglass’s Biography, Early Life and Career
Charles Remond Douglass was a famous personality who came into the limelight because of his career in the military. He was the son of Frederick Douglass and his wife Anna Murray Douglass. Charles Remond became the first African American man to enlist in the military in New York.
He rose through the ranks and served one of the highest ranks to ever be held by a black man in that era. During his time in the military, the problems that black soldiers were undergoing in the Civil War came out.
Biography
Charles Remond was born on October 21, 1844. He was the third and youngest son of Frederick Douglass and his first wife Anna Murray. His parents named him after their friend who was an anti-slavery speaker.
Charles grew up in the Lynn, Massachusetts area, where he attended school. His family later relocated to Rochester, New York, and he began attending public school in the area. He began working from a young age as a delivery boy.
Remond’s father owned a newspaper, North Star, and Remond would deliver copies of the newspaper. Later in life, he became a soldier, journalist, government clerk, real estate developer, and secretary and treasurer for the District of Colombia school district.
Remond found love in the 1860s. He married Mary Elizabeth Murphy in 1866, and they went on to welcome six children. Remond’s six children would not live up to adulthood except for Joseph Henry.
Joseph Henry would go on to become a recognized concert violinist. Douglass and his wife were married until she died in 1879. On December 30, 1880, he married his second wife Laura Haley.
Charles Remond and Haley welcomed a son together, Haley Goerge Douglass. Haley would go on to become a schoolteacher at Dunbar High School, in Washington. He later became the mayor of Highland Beach, Maryland from 1922 to his death in 1954.
Career
Charles Remond was the first African-American to enlist in the US military service in New York during the Civil War. He volunteered during the 54th Massachusetts Infantry regiment the same time that his brother Lewis Henry Douglass had enlisted.
While Charles’s brother would go on to rise through the ranks and become a sergeant major, Charles became ill and he would no longer be deployed into troops. He remained at the training camp in Readville, Massachusetts, and went on to join another black military regiment.
Charles became the first sergeant and was discharged in 1864 after his father made the release request to President Abraham Lincoln. He went on to hold numerous high posts in the District of Columbia National Guard.
Other Careers
Besides a military career, Charles did other things. From 1867 to 1869 he served in the Freedmen’s Bureau becoming the first black American to do so. He also worked in the treasury department as well as a clerk.
He worked for 53 years in government service and retired in August 1920. He died on November 23, 1920, after a short illness.