CHARLES HOLLINGSHEAD HATCH was born in 1835, the son of George G. Hatch who died in Portsmouth, Virginia in 1842 leaving Charles and his two siblings without a father. Charles's mother was Elizabeth Champion from Waterford Township. Gloucester County, and it was to the Champion family that the widow Hatch and her children turned.

The Champions' were farmers and young Charles became a farmer and continued to work on his Uncle Benjamin Champion's farm. In his later teens he went to live for a while in Philadelphia with other family members, and at the outbreak of the Civil War in early 1861 joined a Company formed in Philadelphia but was later disbanded.

Returning to his home in Camden, he followed his cousin William Browning Hatch, enlisting on October 24, 1861 as a Private in Company G, 4th Infantry Regiment New Jersey Volunteers and quickly rose in

rank. Charles to Second Lieutenant, and William ultimately to full Colonel, in command of the Regiment. Charles Hatch was promoted to Full Sergeant Major on October 18, 1861 and to Second Lieutenant with Company H on November 4, 1861.

Their regiment became part of the Grand Army of the Republic defending first Washington DC and then taking part in the Peninsula Campaign to wrest Richmond, then the capital of the Confederacy, from the Rebel forces. Then fought their way up from the mouth of the James River to within several miles of Richmond but the tides of war turned and they were overwhelmed by Lee's forces. The Fourth New Jersey fought on June 27, 1862 at Gaines Farm, VA, a battle also referred to as Gaines' Mill. During the battle of Gaines' Mill, Lieutenant Hatch was wounded and escaped taking shelter in a nearby farm house. This farm house was at one time used by General Porter.  

Some three days after the fight at Gaines' Mill, Confederate soldiers captured a wounded, shot in the hip, Charles Hatch. His cousin, Lieutenant Colonel William B. Hatch had also been captured, as was a Private from Company I, Woodrow Hughes. They were transported to Richmond for imprisonment in the infamous Libby prison. Other prisoners from Company H included Thomas Grapevine and Joshua Fish Stone..  

After a relatively brief period of captivity, the two cousins and most of the other prisoners from the 4th Infantry Regiment New Jersey Volunteers were exchanged for Confederate prisoners and returned to their regiment. Charles Hatch's wound, however, rendered him unable to serve and he was eventually honorably discharged to a doctor's care in Camden. He resigned his commission on September 3, 1862. His unit carried him on the roster through the end of the war, however.

William B. Hatch was promoted to full Colonel and took command of the Fourth New Jersey in late August, 1862. He led the regiment at Fredericksburg in December 1862 and during the battle of Marye's Heights was fatally wounded. Colonel Hatch was returned and interred in Evergreen Cemetery where a monument to his service to the Union was erected.

Charles Hatch returned to civilian life. Still suffering from the effects of his wound, he never returned to full health, and began collecting his Civil War disability pension in 1871. For a short time he served as a Magistrate in Mays Landing until a stroke left him further disabled. His first wife Margaret "Mary" Woolf of Philadelphia died shortly after giving birth to a son Thomas. In 1890 he was living at 855 North 2nd Street in Philadelphia PA. Eventually he remarried Elizabeth Cruickshank and remained in Philadelphia living on a small disability pension and spending some time in the New Jersey Home for Disabled Soldiers Home in Kearny, New Jersey, where he was living at the time of the 1900 census. In 1907, after having been returned to his home in Philadelphia, his health rapidly sinking, he died.     

Charles Hatch along with his second wife was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, near many other members of the Hatch extended family.

Another cousin, Joseph Champion, also served in the Union army during the Civil War.