Charles C. Nott

Born in Schenectady, New York, in 1827, Charles C. Nott studied at Union College, read law in Albany, and built a legal career in New York City. During the Civil War he served in the Union Army, where he became a colonel, adding a major chapter of military service to an already varied public life.

After the war, he moved between law, politics, and the bench. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives for New York and later became a judge of the United States Court of Claims, a post that firmly linked his name with federal law and government service. That mix of practical politics and judicial experience gives his work a grounded, firsthand quality.

He also wrote on historical and public subjects, bringing together the perspective of a soldier, legislator, and judge. For listeners interested in nineteenth-century American writing, his work offers more than a single point of view: it comes from someone who spent decades inside the institutions that shaped the era.