Charles Carleton CoffinCharles Carleton Coffin (July 26, 1823 – March 2, 1896) was a journalist, war correspondent, author, and politician from the United States. Coffin was a well-known newspaper correspondent during the American Civil War. He has been referred to as "theErnie Pyle of his era," and his biographer, W.E. Griffis, describes him as "a soldier of the pen and knight of the truth." Charles Carleton Coffin, a descendant of Tristram Coffin, who landed in the American colonies from England in 1642, was born on July 26, 1823, in Boscawen, New Hampshire. His parents home-schooled him as a child in rural New Hampshire, and he briefly attended Pembroke Academy and Boscawen Academy. The church was the center of village activity, and when Charles was in his teens, he went to work in a forestry business and saved $60 to buy an organ, which he donated to the church and became the first organist. During a sickness in 1841-42, he purchased a surveying book, which had a great impact on the young man. It gave him "an engineer's eye," according to one biographer, which led to an interest in roads, rivers, and altitudes. This curiosity manifested itself later in his work as a war correspondent. Read More Read Less