Robert Simpson Westbrook

In 1860 he was a 17 year old shoemaker living with his parents and siblings in Huntington, PA. He enlisted at Huntington on 28 February 1862 as a Private in Company D, 49th Pennsylvania Infantry. He was wounded at Garnett's Hill, VA on 27 June 1862 during the Seven Days' battles, but was back with his Company on 1 July.

He was with his Company in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

He transferred to the new, consolidated Company B and was promoted to Corporal on 4 March 1864. He was seriously wounded by a piece of shell at Spotsylvania, VA on 10 May 1864 and promoted to Sergeant on 24 October, but was discharged for wounds on 24 April 1865.

In 1866 he started an ice cream factory with his bother William in Altoona, PA. In 1880 he ran a variety store in Huntington and he began receiving a veteran's pension for disability due to a gunshot to his right shoulder (probably from June 1862) in March 1883. By 1890 and to at least 1913 he was an ice cream manufacturer and dealer in Altoona, PA. A 1911 Altoona business guide noted:

R. S. WESTBROOK -Manufacturer and Shipper of Ice Cream, and proprietor of one of the leading Oyster Parlors in Altoona, located at 1601 Eleventh Avenue. Mr. Westbrook has been engaged in this special line of business for the past forty-five years and has been established in the very same location as above for twenty-one years, and he has a good run of patrons. He is newly fitting up his place and during the coming season it will be one of the busiest oyster parlors in the city. Oysters are served in any and every style that can be mentioned and the prices are the very lowest, and service prompt. Mr. Westbrook is an old soldier, was a member of 49th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers and can tell you many things of interest that happened during the war. He wrote up a history of his regiment [1898] which is certainly one of the most interesting volumes regarding the war ever published.

His service from his own History.1 Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860, 1880, and 1900-1930. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Annie P. Howell (1855-1922) in March 1873 and they had two daughters, Minnie and Laura.

11/03/1843; Huntington, PA

02/25/1931; Altoona, PA; burial in Rose Hill Cemetery, Altoona, PA