Benjamin Robinson

Son of a wealthy physician, in 1860 he was a 16 year old student living with his parents, 4 siblings, and 3 or 4 slaves in Fayetteville, Cumberland County, NC. He enrolled on 20 June 1861 and mustered as 2nd Lieutenant of Company A, 5th North Carolina Infantry to date from 15 May. He was promoted to First Lieutenant to date from 17 August and was acting Adjutant in February 1862. He was appointed Captain on 6 March 1862 (to date from December 1861).

He was mentioned as having "conducted [himself] with soldier-like gallantry" on the Maryland Campaign by General D.H. Hill.

He submitted his resignation on 26 September 1862 but was still with his company in action at Chancellorsville, VA on 3 May 1863. He was with them until wounded in the foot at Spotsylvania Court House, VA on 9 May 1864 and furloughed home on 19 (or 26) July. He was retired for disability and assigned for duty in the Invalid Corps to Lt. Gen. Holmes in North Carolina on 12 January 1865.

He founded the Fayetteville News in 1866, and was a news publisher and editor in Wilmington and Fayetteville. In 1870 he was at Silver Run in Russell County, AL. By 1873 he was also licensed to practice law in North Carolina and he founded the Republican paper The Statesman in Fayetteville in 1874 and ran for Mayor that year, losing by one vote. He disappeared from public life (and probably left his family) afterward, and was living alone in Florida at the time of his death at age in 44 in 1888.

His service from his Compiled Service Records,1 online from fold3. The D H Hill quote from the general's after-action report. Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860 & 1870, and the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Celia Urbanna Myrover (1845-1936) in February 1863 and they had 6 children.

12/08/1843; Fayetteville, NC

08/03/1888; Pensacola, FL; burial in Saint John's Cemetery, Pensacola, FL