Hon. Charles Albright, Lawyer, Manufacturer, and Legislator, was born in Berks county, Pennsylvania, December 13th, 1830. He is a son of Solomon Albright, and springs from one of the oldest families in that portion of the State. He attended a school at Strasburg, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, where he was prepared for college, and entered the Sophomore Class at Dickinson, in 1848. Having graduated in June, 1851, he engaged in the study of the law with Robert L. Johnston, of Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, and was admitted to and engaged in practice there, in December, 1852. He early enlisted under the Anti-Slavery banner, and went to Kansas, in 1854, to take an active part in the struggle between the Pro-Slavery and Anti-Slavery parties in that Territory. Having returned to Pennsylvania, in 1856, he settled in Mauch Chunk, where he resumed the practice of his profession. He became a leading spirit in the Republican party, and, in i860, was a delegate to the National Republican Convention which nominated Lincoln. He took an active interest in the campaign which followed; and became a member of the Clay Battalion, in February, 1861, and with it not only guarded the public buildings at Washington, but organized for the defence of the President. He took an active part in raising troops in response to the call of the President, and was obliged by business engagements to decline the proffer of a commission in the army, in 1861; but, in August, 1862, he accepted the commission of Major of the 132d Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, which took an honorable part in the battle of Antietam the following month, and received a marked commendation from General McClellan in his official report. He was immediately afterward commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel, and having assumed command of his regiment was made a Colonel, February 22d, 1863, and assigned to the command of the 3d Brigade, 3d Division, 2d Corps, which he commanded until after the battle of Chancellorsville. Having been mustered out with his regiment of nine months men, he accepted the appointment of Commanding Officer of Camp Muhlenberg, at Reading, where he organized troops for the emergency incident to Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania. He was sent to Philadelphia, in July of the same year, to assist in enforcing the draft. He became Colonel of the 202d Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, in September, 1864, and was shortly afterwards given the command of the forces guarding the Orange, Alexandria, and Manassas Gap Railroads, and the defences of Washington from the depredations of the rebel Mosby. In recognition of his many services and deeds of gallantry, among which were Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the latter especially mentioned in the report of General French, he was appointed Brevet Brigadier-General of Volunteers, in March, 1865. After the surrender of Richmond, he was assigned to the command of the Lehigh Military District. Having been mustered out, in August, 1865, he resumed his practice at Mauch Chunk. Upon the organization of the Second National Bank, at Mauch Chunk, in 1863, he became its President, and so continues. He had engaged in the manufacture of mining machinery in 1858, and having continued it alone until 1863, he then associated with him William H. Stroh, under the firm name of Albright & Stroh, who still operate the works well known as the "Mauch Chunk Iron Works." He was again a delegate to the National Republican Convention, in Philadelphia, in 1872; and, in 1873, was elected to the Forty-third Congress, where he has proved an energetic and indefatigable worker, devoting himself assiduously to the labors devolving upon him. He is one of the three Congressmen at large from Pennsylvania, and received the highest number of votes polled for any Congressman at his election. He is public spirited and earnest in the projection of every useful enterprise. Firm in his convictions, he is a generous opponent and esteemed for his uniform courtesy and sterling integrity.
Source: The Biographical Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the Nineteenth Century. Philadelphia: Galaxy Publishing Co., 1874, pp. 416-417.
Contributed by: Nancy.