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T.B. Robinson
(1834 - 1918)
Home State: Connecticut
Branch of Service: Infantry
Before Antietam
A machinist and clockmaker in Bristol, he mustered into service as 2nd Lieutenant, Company K, 16th Connecticut Infantry on 7 August 1862.
On the Campaign
He was with his Company in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862.
The rest of the War
He was promoted to Captain on 20 February 1863. He and most of his regiment were captured at Plymouth, NC on 20 April 1864 and initially held at Camp Oglethorpe at Macon, GA, then, by the end of July, at Charleston, SC. During another transfer, to Columbia, SC in October 1864, he and two other Captains from the 16th jumped from the train. They remained at large for 6 days, but were recaptured and imprisoned at Camp Sorghum in Columbia. On 3 November he and other officers again escaped, finally reaching the Atlantic coast and rowing out to a Union blockade ship, the USS Canandaigua on 12 November 1864. After a furlough he returned to duty with his Company, and he mustered out on 24 June 1865.
After the War
He was a machinist and shop manager in a number of manufacturing companies in Bristol, CT for the rest of his life, the greatest period, 20 years, as foreman at the George Jones clock factory.
References & notes
His presence at Antietam and basic biographical information is from the Biographical Register1 with service details from Ingersoll,2 Blakeslee,3 and the Record.4 His gravesite is on Findagrave. Thanks to Garth Gustafson for the prod to look into the Robinson brothers.
His younger brother Henry Azel Robinson (1845-1864), a Corporal in Company K, was probably also at Antietam. He was also captured at Plymouth, NC but died while a prisoner at Andersonville.
He married Sophia Wells Water (1836-) in October 1855 and they had 5 children.
More on the Web
See much more about the Robinsons in a fine blog post by John Banks, source also of his photograph, from the Connecticut State Library.
Birth
07/18/1834; Cromwell, CT
Death
02/06/1918; Bristol, CT; burial in West Cemetery, Bristol, CT
1 Beers, J. H., Commemorative Biographical Record of Hartford County, Connecticut, Chicago: J.H. Beers & Co, 1901, Vol. 1, p. 73-74 [AotW citation 29864]
2 Ingersoll, Colin Macrae, Adjutant-General, Catalogue of Connecticut Volunteer Organizations in the Service of the United States, 1861-1865, Hartford: Brown & Gross, 1869, p. 662 [AotW citation 29865]
3 Blakeslee, Bernard F., History of the Sixteenth Connecticut Volunteers, Hartford: The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co., Printers, 1875, pp. 73, 76, 85-89 [AotW citation 29866]
4 State of Connecticut, Adjutant General's Office, and AGs Smith, Camp, and Barbour, and AAG White, Record of Service of Connecticut Men in the Army and Navy of the United States during the War of the Rebellion, Hartford: Press of the Case, Lockwood, and Brainard Company, 1889, p. 637 [AotW citation 29867]