Charles
Henry Devereux
Cincinnati Enquirer, Monday, 10 April 1911, page 12
By the death today of a man supposed to be Sergeant Major Charles
H Devereux at Newport Ky. the dual life of a Manchester by the Sea man, Charles
G Bingham, brother of Inspector of Immigration Henry T Bingham, of Boston Mass.
was revealed. For 50 years, the soldier hero of three wars and until his death a
Clerk in the Courts of Newport, was known as Devereux.
His brother, who still lives in Manchester-by-the Sea, admitted tonight that the man now dead was his brother, whom he had not seen since August 1865. Just why Mr. Bingham changed his name is a mystery. Friends still alive who knew him as a little boy before the outbreak of the Civil War, gave three reasons as the probable cause, but the man whose lips are now sealed in death was the only person who actually knew.
It is said that when young Bingham south to enlist in the Massachusetts regiment he knew he might not return and to save his mother and father the anxiety of worrying about him he changed his name to Devereux and fought under that name. Another reason is that he was first refused because of his age, 14 years at the time and offered his life under a nom de plume. The third reason is that he acted as a correspondent for newspapers during the Civil War and wrote under a name other than his own.
Born in Manchester-by-the-Sea in the old Bingham homestead, Charles enlisted at the outbreak of the Civil War in the Fifth Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment and was sent to Ft McHenry in Baltimore. When the war was over, he returned home and saw his brother Henry for the last time. His visit was short and he re-enlisted in the Sixth United States Regulars, serving in the West throughout the Indian conflicts. His regiment was assigned to Wyoming and saw much service with the redskins.
At the outbreak of the Spanish American War, still a soldier, he was sent to Cuba and took part in many of the big battles and later ordered to the Philippine Islands, where he served until his regiment mustered out. He returned to America and took up residence in Newport Ky. where he was appointed a clerk in the courts. He married and had several children, all of who are alive. At the time of the death of his parents, some correspondence was carried on between him and Henry.
"I don't know why my brother changed his name. It may have been because he was at first refused service: It may been because he didnt want mother to know if he was killed and it may have been because he was a newspaper reporter and didn't want to write under his own name. He was my brother, I remember him well. It is a strange mysterious case," Henry told an Enquirer reporter tonight.
It was as Charles H Devereux that the man now dead served his country, was married, was given a clerkship in Court, was appointed Sergeant Major for bravery in service, and would have been buried had not his identity became known.
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Kentucky Post, Tuesday, 11 April 1911, page 7
The authorities of Campbell co. and Ft Thomas, after investigating the death of Major Charles Devereux, have been unable to throw any light on his past life. Coroner Digby, who was a friend of the dead man, found several letters on Devereux's clothes addressed to Charles Bingham, and started an investigation into the man's past. All of this correspondence will be held, subject to orders of the writer, a brother, resides at Manchester-by-the-sea, Mass. with whom Coroner Digby is in communication.
Mrs. Devereux, the widow, who was removed to Speers Hospital shortly after her husband's death, is in a critical condition. Pneumonia has developed and although she rested well last night, there is little hope for her recovery. The hospital authorities state that she has been raving about her husband and does not realized he is dead. At times she pleads with the nurses to tell her if he is not alive.
Last evening she stated that Major Devereux assumed the name when he ran away from home to join the Union Army. She said he was but 14 years of age then and can advance no theory as to why he changed his name, except that it was because he became a correspondent for a newspaper during the war. She added that she married Devereux in 1864 at Bismark ND. She was born in Munich, her maiden name having been Yungfraner. At an early age she married a man named Baerle, in Paris and had two children who died quite young and a boy, Charles Baerle, now 44 and married. She does not know where this son is now, except somewhere in Paris, France. Mrs. Devereux has no relatives in this country.
Henry Bingham, the brother, wired Coroner Digby to bury the body, as he could not come here.