Charles P. (Charles Palfray) Bosson

Charles P. Bosson, also cited as Charles Palfray Bosson, is remembered for History of the Forty-Second Regiment Infantry, Massachusetts Volunteers, 1862, 1863, 1864, published in Boston in 1886. Catalog records and later listings consistently connect him with that book, which chronicles the service of the 42nd Massachusetts during the Civil War.

Available descriptions of the book say Bosson had served with the regiment himself, which helps explain the direct, participant's view of camp life, campaigns, and military routine that readers associate with regimental histories of the period. Whatever else may be lost about his life, that volume preserves his voice as a veteran writing for fellow soldiers and for future readers.

Reliable biographical details beyond the book and its subject are hard to confirm from the sources I found, so it seems safest to remember him primarily as a veteran-author whose work continues to circulate through libraries, archives, and reprints.