Born in Boscawen, New Hampshire, The United States July 26, 1823 Died: March 02, 1896 Genre: Journalism, History, Politics Charles Carleton Coffin was an American journalist, Civil War correspondent, author and politician. Coffin was one of the best-known newspaper correspondents of the American Civil War. He has been called "the Ernie Pyle of his era," and a biographer, W.E. Griffis, referred to him as "a soldier of the pen and knight of the truth." Yet he remains little known to the present day generation. A descendant of Tristam Coffin who arrived in the American colonies from England in 1642, Charles Carlton Coffin was born in Boscawen, New Hampshire, on July 26, 1832. Growing up in rural New Hampshire he was home-schooled by his parents. Village life revolved around the church, and in his teens Charles went to work in a lumbering operation and with $60 from his earnings, he purchased an organ which he gave to the church, and became the first organist. Less