BIO: Alexander Brady Sharpe, Cumberland County, PA
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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania.
Containing History of the Counties, Their Townships, Towns, Villages,
Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc.; Portraits of Early Settlers and
Prominent Men; Biographies; History of Pennsylvania; Statistical and
Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc. Illustrated. Chicago: Warner, Beers
& Co., 1886.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/beers/beers.htm
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PART II.
HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
BOROUGH OF CARLISLE.
394 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES:
ALEXANDER BRADY SHARPE, Esq., of Carlisle, son of John and Jane
(McCune) Sharpe, was born in Newton Township, Cumberland County, on the
12th of August 1827. His ancestors, paternal, and maternal, were among
the first settlers in the upper end of the county. His great-
grandparents on his father's side, Thomas and Margaret (Elder) Sharp,
were Covenanters, who, because of their religious faith, were driven
from Scotland to the province of Ulster in the North of Ireland, about
or shortly after the middle of the seventh century, and resided near
Belfast, in the County of Antrim, until about the year 1747, when they
immigrated with their children, consisting of five sons and four
daughters, to Cumberland County, Penn., and settled in Newton Township.
His grandfather was Alexander Sharp, of Green Spring, the youngest of
five sons. His maternal great-grandparents were James McCune and
Abigail, his wife, of Newton Township, whose son Samuel married Hannah
Brady, a daughter of Hugh Brady the second, whose father, Hugh Brady,
was an emigrant from Enniskillen, and one of the first settlers in that
portion of the county now embraced in Hopewell Township. He began his
studies preparatory to entering college with Joseph Casey the elder,
father of Hon. Joseph Casey, at Newville, in 1839, and after his death
continued them at Academia, Juniata County, and completed them with
Vanleer Davis, at Chambersburg; entered the sophomore class at
Jefferson College, Cannonsburg, Penn., in 1843, and graduated on the
23d of September, 1846, with the highest honors of his class. The
college was then under the presidency of Rev. Dr. Robert J.
Breckenridge, and two of his classmates were Hon. William H. West of
Ohio, and Hon. John M. Kirkpatrick, of Pittsburgh. On his return from
college he commenced with study of law with Robert M. Bard, Esq., of
Chambersburg, and completed his course with Hon. Frederick Watts, of
Carlisle. Hugh Gaullagher, Esq., W. M. Biddle, Esq., and Hon. J. H.
Graham, were the committee appointed to examine him, and on motion of
the last named he was, on the 21st of November, 1848, admitted to
practice. He remained with Judge Watts until the 1st of April, 1849,
when he opened an office and has since been engaged in the practice of
his profession, except during the years of the war of the Rebellion,
when from the 21st of April, 1861, until the 28th of January, 1865
(less the period from the 27th of December, 1862, to the 28th of
August, 1863), he was constantly in the service as a private or a
commissioned officer. April 21, 1861, he enlisted as a private in
Company A, Seventh Regiment Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteer Corps, and
served as such until the 25th of September, when he was commissioned
second lieutenant of Company E, and appointed adjutant of the regiment.
On the 4th of December he was relieved from duty with his regiment,
which was a part of the Second Brigade (Meade's) of McCall's division,
and ordered to report to Brig.-Gen. Ord, commanding the Third Brigade,
who had appointed him aide-de-camp. He joined Gen. Ord the same day
and served on his personal staff until the General was wounded and
disabled temporarily for field service, when he resigned. After Ord's
recovery he was, at the General's instance, again commissioned a
captain and assigned to duty with him, where he served until he
resigned on the 28th of January, 1865. During the war he was in field
service in the Army of the Potomac, of the Rappahannock, in the Army of
the Tennessee, Army of West Virginia, Army of the Gulf, and in the Army
of the James. He participated in the engagement at Drainesville, on
the 20th of December, 1861; the battle of Iuka, September 18 and 20,
1862; Big Hatchie, October 5, 1862; Burnside's Mine Explosion, July 30,
1864; Battle of New Market Heights, or Chapin's Farm, and capture of
Fort Harrison, September 9 and 10, 1864. He was brevetted and promoted
to the rank of captain and aide-de-camp, United States Army, for
gallant and meritorious service at the battle of Drainesville, and on
the 13th of March, 1865 (on the recommendation of Gens. Ord, Meade and
Grant) received the brevet ranks of major, lieutenant-colonel and
colonel United States Volunteers for gallant conduct at Petersburg and
the various affairs before Richmond, Va. On the 19th of December,
1854, Col. Sharpe married Katherine Mears Blaney, a daughter of the
late Maj. George Blaney, Engineer Corps, United States Army. He never
held an office, and never was a candidate for any, political, judicial
or otherwise,
395 BOROUGH OF CARLISLE.
but he has political convictions coeval with the existence of his
party, from which he has never turned away, a sense of professional and
social duty which has never yet caused him to be ashamed, and an
abiding faith in the doctrines of the church of his fathers.