A son of Reuben and Margaret M. Shepard Aleshire.

The following obituary is from the Gallipolis Journal, April 24, 1889

"Death of Major Charles C. Aleshire

'The light he leaves behind him lies upon the path of men.'

After nine weeks of distressing illness, during which the kindest and most loving attentions of family and friends were bestowed, all that was mortal of Major Aleshire left its earthly tenement and passed the boundaries of the known to the unknown. At four o'clock, Monday morning, April 22nd, 1889, the soul took its departure. The funeral services will take place this afternoon, April 24th, at the family residence on Front street, and will be conducted by Rev. John Moncure, of St. Peter's Church. The burial will be at Mound Hill Cemetery.

Major Aleshire was born in this city, May 14, 1840. He was of warm and ardent temperament, enthusiastic and persistent in what he undertook, ambitious in the undertakings, courageous and brave at all times, self-reliant, independent, with an acute mind and manly, athletic bearing. He developed all of these characteristics young in life, and they gave him a force of character, naturally, that impressed itself upon all with whom he came in contact. His education was always of the best the city afforded, and he spent many years in Gallia Academy. In his first ventures in the way of business for himself we believe he took a clerkship on the old Kanawha Valley, a packet between this port and Charleston, but he had higher aims, and afterward studied law with Alonzo Cushing, Esq., or Cushing & Hebard, and then attended the Cincinnati Law School, graduating from the school in the spring of 1861, at the very moment the first company was being recruited at Cincinnati, to answer the call of President Lincoln for troops for three months' service to defend the Union of the States. He hastened home and was the first volunteer from Gallia county. He immediately began to raise a company, in which he was eminently successful, and he was always grateful to the editor of the Journal for the assistance that was lent him in this undertaking by this office. At that dark and trying hour Major Aleshire was a hero and a guidon to every patriotic Union-loving heart in Gallia county. Well do we remember the kind attentions given him by young and old, male and female. Well do we remember how the young ladies of the town met at the residence of Capt. Frank Mathers, on Third St., and made his company one hundred flannel shirts, in every pocket of which was placed a testament and the red, white and blue ribbon rosettes that went with each one, and the presentation speech that was made by Miss Annie E. Langley from the steps of Mr. LeClercq's residence, now Capt. Cox's on Court and Front streets, and Major Aleshire's patriotic and eloquent response. He and his gallant "One Hundred" were the pride of Gallia County in that hour and they entered the grand army of the Union with the prayers and blessings of everybody following them. How singular it is that in passing from earth to immortality that the day, April 22d, should be the very day of the same month in which 28 years before he enlisted as a soldier in the Union Army. Let us hope that it is prophetic of having enlisted in the Grand Army of the Lord Jesus beyond the skies, and it is a pleasure for us to know that before he died he gave evidence of this fact. He seemed to have a mysterious premonition that he would never get well and of the time that he would die. Six months before, he said, he would die in the next April. He regarded the month as a fatal one in the family, his brother Joe and his father, Reuben Aleshire, passing away in that month. On Wednesday, a week ago today, he said 'One week from today I will be under ground, but I will find a harbor.' On Friday, last, he said: 'I will sleep tonight, tomorrow night, and Sunday night will be my last sleep on earth. I am not afraid to die. I am reconciled.'

His company did effective work in the three months service, but long before their time expired nearly all had re-enlisted for 'The War.' Under the President's call for 300,000 men Capt. Aleshire, the following year, recruited the 18th Ohio Independent Battery. The men were raised principally in this and Pike counties. The First Lieutenants of the Battery were Wm. R. Morgan, Henry A. Regnier, Joseph McCafferty and Albert Bierce. The Battery was assigned to duty with Col. Coburn's brigade, 1st division, 14th Army Corps, and participated in 27 engagements during the war, being discharged from the service, June 29th, 1865, having won a proud name and record, and returning with the beautiful silk flag presented to the Battery by the ladies of Gallipolis through Miss Kate Shallcross, in July, 1862, and received by Capt. Aleshire in burning words of patriotism. At the Reunion, last year, Major Aleshire presented this torn and tattered silk guidon for exhibition among the relics of the war with the following inscription over his own signature:

'This flag or guidon was carried by the battery at the battle of Thompson's Station, Tenn., March 4, 1863; at the battle of Franklin, Tenn., March 10, 1863; at battle of Triune, Tenn., June 11, 1863; at the battle of Shelbyville, Tenn., June 27th, '63; at the battle of Chickamauga, Ga., Sept. 18, 19 and 20, '63. After the battle of Chickamauga, the battery was stationed on Moccasin Point and engaged the batteries of the enemy on Lookout Mountain for twenty-two successive days, and under fire of the enemy's guns at this point for sixty-seven days, and during the whole time this little flag was the standard of the 18th Ohio Battery. It was succeeded by a flag or guidon furnished by the government.'

Chas. C. Aleshire
Aug. 2, 1888

After the war was over Capt. Aleshire entered the United States Army as First Lieutentant, and while in service was brevetted Major for his meritorious services on the field, Gens. Sherman, Hooker, Thomas and others recommending it. He remained in the Regular Army for five years resigning after having given nine years of his life to his country's cause. During Col. Vance's term in Congress he held the position of Superintendent of the Public Document Department, Washington, D. C., at a salary of $2,200 per annum. He afterward engaged in the practice of law in New York City for two years. Since then he has been a practitioner at the bar in this city. In June, 1867, he married Miss Mary Lavinia Donnally, step-daughter of the late Hon. H. M. Onderdonk, by whom he had one son, Reuben, now assistant book-keeper in the First National Bank. Both live in nice property of their own just above Vine street on the river."

A collection of his letters can be found at Marshall University.