Lieutenant-Colonel Charles M. Betts (Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry), son of John and Sarah C. Betts, was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, August 9, 1838. His boyhood life was passed on the farm of his father and in attending school at Loller Academy, Hatboro, Pa. Having a taste for commercial life, after a term at Gummere's School, Burlington, New Jersey, he entered the employ of a wholesale lumber firm in Philadelphia in the year 1856. Soon after the breaking out of the Civil War he joined one of the military companies forming for home defense, and was commissioned first lieutenant by Governor Curtin. In November, 1861, resigning the clerkship previously held, he went to Alexandria, Virginia, and secured a position as chief clerk in the Quartermaster's Department of General Franklin's division, and participated in the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac until the close of the Seven Days' battles in front of Richmond, Virginia. At the call of the President for three hundred thousand more troops, feeling that duty required him to take a more active part in the suppression of the Rebellion, he resigned his position and returned to Philadelphia, when, August 12, 1862, he enlisted as a private in the (Anderson) Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, then forming. He was with a portion of that command at the battle of Antietam, after which the regiment was transferred to Louisville, Kentucky, when he was made first sergeant of Company E. Soon after the regiment was sent to Nashville, Tennessee, and with some three hundred of its members he participated in the battle of Stone River under General Rosecrans.
At the reorganization of the regiment March 1, 1863, he was commissioned captain of Company F, and given the command of a battalion, as no major was commissioned after the reorganization until May, 1864. In a fight with the Cherokee Indians near Gatlinburg, East Tennessee, he was wounded in the left arm December 10, 1863, In May, 1864, a commission of major was given him, and at the opening of the campaign of 1865 he was made lieutenant-colonel, and given the active command of the regiment, Colonel W. J. Palmer having been promoted to brevet brigadier-general. He took an active part in all the movements of the regiment, except when on leave of absence from his wound, and with the column of Stoneman participated in the exciting campaigns through the western part of the Carolinas, and with his regiment, when looking for the trail of Jefferson Davis, made an important capture, which is spoken of in General Palmer's report as follows " On the morning of the 8th instant, while searching for Davis near the forks of the Appalachee and Oconee Rivers, Colonel Betts, Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, captured seven wagons hidden in the woods, which contained one hundred and eighty-eight thousand dollars in coin, and one million five hundred and eighty-eight thousand dollars in bank-notes, bonds, etc., of various Southern States, and about four million dollars of Confederate money, besides considerable specie, plate, and other valuables belonging to private citizens in Macon. . . . The wagons also contained the private baggage, maps, and official papers of Generals Beauregard and Pillow." In closing his report of the exciting chase, General Palmer says: " I desire to recommend for honorable mention and promotion Lieutenant-Colonel Charles M. Betts, commanding Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, for gallant conduct in charging and capturing a South Carolina battalion of cavalry (3d S. C.), with its commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Johnson, in front of Greensboro, N. C., on the morning of April 19, 1865; also for thoroughly preserving the discipline of his regiment on an active campaign, during which the troops were compelled to live exclusively on the country." For the action at Greensboro, N. C., he has lately received a medal of honor, in accordance with the Act of Congress approved March 3, 1863.
Colonel Betts was mustered out of service with his regiment June 21, 1865, and has since achieved success in the wholesale lumber business, having been for nearly twenty-five years a member of the firm of Taylor & Betts, and since 1890 the senior of the firm of Charles M. Betts & Co., at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Buffalo, New York. He is a member of the Pennsylvania Commandery, Military Order of the Loyal Legion, and served three years in the council of that body. He takes an active interest in G. A. R. matters, and is past commander of Post 2, Philadelphia. He was one of the incorporators of the Lumbermen's Exchange, Philadelphia, serving as a director in that organization, and its president in the year 1890.
On May 3, 1866, he was married to Louisa G. Hance. Four sons and one daughter are the result of this union.
Source: Officers of the Volunteer Army and Navy who served in the Civil War, published by L.R. Hamersly & Co., 1893, 419 pgs.

Sarah Jordan (Lancaster) Hance, married Col. Charles Malone Betts of Philadelphia. Their children: Charles Betts, Caroline Betts, John Henderson Betts, and Benjamin Betts. Daughter Caroline Lancaster Betts married Joseph Linden Heacock.

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