Charles Ellison was born in Orange County, North Carolina on September 9, 1763. In August 1780 he became a private in the Orange County Regiment of the North Carolina Militia and was captured by enemy forces at Hillsborough in September 1781. Imprisoned on a ship in Charleston, South Carolina, he was exchanged and discharged in August 1782. He later moved to Tennessee, where he made a sworn deposition in support of Lydia Ray's widow's pension application stating that he knew Lydia Ray was married to Joseph Ray, and that Joseph was a soldier in the Revolution that had served alongside Ellison. He died in Robertson County, Tennessee on May 2, 1851.