My Genealogy Hound

COL. ROBERT L. KILPATRICK. Few of those patriotic men who participated in the fierce struggle to maintain the Union, merited or received greater honor than was the reward of valor on the part of this retired army officer, who now resides in Springfield, and a lithographic portrait* of whom, on the opposite page, will be noticed by the reader. In 1861, at the first call for troops he raised a company, of which he was chosen Captain. It was known as Company B, Fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was organized April 20; its nucleus was a part of the old Highland Guard, of Cincinnati, of which the Colonel had formerly been a member. Before going into the field, they re-enlisted for three years, then went to the front, where they distinguished themselves for dauntless bravery, and won the admiration of other regiments as well as of their superior officers.

On January 5, 1862, Capt. Kilpatrick with his regiment participated in the battle of Blue’s Gap, Va., and on June 9, of the same year took part in the well fought battle of Port Republic. In the latter engagement Col. Kilpatrick, then Captain, was captured during the retreat from that battlefield, and confined at Lynchburg, Va., thence was taken to Salisbury, N. C., and later to Libby prison, being incarcerated in those loathsome prison pens for two months and eleven days. He was then paroled, but understanding that he was exchanged he went to Covington, Ky., and was there engaged in drilling and organizing the hastily raised levies in Kentucky during the time of the Kirby Smith raid. After ascertaining that he was on parole he desired to be relieved, but the Commander, Col. Shinkle, who could not well dispense with his services, persuaded him to remain, which he did until the rebels left the vicinity. From Covington he proceeded to Camp Lew Wallace, near Columbus, where he was Provost Marshal of the camp until November, 1862. Then joining his regiment at Harper’s Ferry, he was present at the defense of Dumfries, Va., December 27, 1862, and on January 8, 1863, was promoted from a captaincy to be a Lieutenant-Colonel.

Col. Kilpatrick commanded the regiment in the battle of Chancellorsville, May 1, 2 and 3, 1863. Before noon on the third day of this famous engagement he was severely wounded in the right arm, which necessitated amputation at the shoulder joint; also very severely wounded in the left thigh. He was taken to the Washington Hotel in Washington, D. C., where he was nursed by his wife until his recovery. Then joining his regiment at Louisville, Ky., he commanded it at the battle of Mill Creek Gap, Ga., May 8, 1864, also was present at the battle of Resaca, May 14 and 15. On the night of the 15th the regiment was detailed under command of Col. Kilpatrick, to cut out and bring off four pieces of artillery and a flag from the rebel redoubt. They faithfully performed their duty and the Colonel, under whose command they were, at the head of his regiment, received the thanks of Col. Cobham, who commanded a brigade in that part of the Union line. The regiment had the advance of the Army of the Cumberland, and, after crossing Pumpkin Vine Creek, May 25, they encountered the advance of the Confederate Army. A sanguinary engagement took place and such were the fearful odds against the Union defenders that the regiment lost about one-fourth of its men in twenty minutes. Nevertheless they steadily maintained their position until re-enforcements arrived.

The last battle in which the Colonel participated was that of New Hope Church, which lasted from May 25 until June 1. On the 17th of August, 1864, his regiment having been reduced to fifty men, on account of the many casualties, and of the fact that the three years for which most of his men enlisted had expired, he resigned his commission and September 28, following, was appointed Captain of the Veteran Reserve Corps. In November, 1864, he was appointed Assistant Provost Marshal of the military district of Washington, also Commander of Forest Hall Prison. After filling this position for a few months he was ordered January 18, 1865, to Alexandria, Va., and was on duty with the Provost Mashal of the defenses south of the Potomac. On May 8 of the same year, he returned to Washington, and was on duty with the provisional cavalry until August, 1865, and was then assigned to Company G, Sixth Regiment Reserve Corps. He remained stationed with his regiment at Johnson’s Island, Ohio, until December, 1865. Being mustered out of volunteer service June 30, 1866, he was, on July 28, the same year, appointed Captain of the Forty-second United States Infantry, and was on recruiting service in Brooklyn and Albany until April 15, 1867. Thence he was transferred to Hart’s Island, New York Harbor, and on May 9, the same year, went to Sackett’s Harbor, in command of Company F, until May 4, 1868. From May, 1868, until May, 1869, he was Commander of the post of Ft. Ontario, N. Y., and from June 3, 1869, to February 10, 1870, was Military Commissioner of the Eleventh District of Virginia, including Charles City and New Kent Counties; also Superintendent of registration and election, and remained in the Old Dominion until February 10, 1870. From that time until the 15th of the ensuing December he was on recruiting service in New York City, and was then retired with the full rank of Colonel. In the volunteer service he was brevetted Major and Lieutenant-Colonel for gallant and meritorious services during the war, and in the regular army was brevetted Major for gallantry at the battle of Port Republic, June 9, 1862, and brevetted Lieutenant-Colonel for gallantry at the battle of Chancellorsville, Va.

The reader will be interested in the principal facts concerning the personal history of one whose public record has become so widely known. Col. Kilpatrick was born in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, April 20, 1825, and belongs to the Dalgarnock branch of the Kilpatrick family. Tracing his ancestry back a few generations we find that his great-grandfather, Hugh Kilpatrick, was born on a farm in Dumfries-shire, Scotland, and was reared to agricultural pursuits. In his early manhood he went to Paisley, then but a small town, where he engaged in the lumber business; he was a member of the firm of Kilpatrick & Middy and resided there until his death. The maiden name of his wife, the great-grandmother of our subject, was Jean Pinkerton, who lived to the great age of ninety-four. She also spent her last years in Paisley.

The grandfather of Col. Kilpatrick, likewise named Hugh, was born in Paisley and learned to weave the celebrated Paisley shawls. He finally became owner of a shop and looms employing several men in that business and spending the closing days of his life in his native town. He was an Elder in the Abbey Church, an edifice which was erected in the eleventh century and is still standing. His wife bore the maiden name of Bell Monroe, and died in Paisley. Among the children she bore her husband was James, the father of Col. Kilpatrick. In Paisley, where he was born January 1, 1800, James Kilpatrick passed his youth, and at an early age learned the trade of a weaver, but when still quite young joined the British Army as a member of the regiment known as the Scotch Grays. After a time his father purchased his discharge, and he, returning to his home, married Miss Janet Lang, who also passed the earlier portion of her life in that Scottish town. About five or six years after his marriage James Kilpatrick took service under the government at St. John’s Newfoundland, where he died when about thirty-five years old.

The maternal grandfather of our subject, Robert Lang, was a native of Paisley and was the son of Peter Lang, who was born on a farm near Kilpatrick, Dumbartonshire, Scotland. Peter Lang was one of a family of nineteen children, all of whom lived to manhood and womanhood. Peter Lang, after spending his youth on the homestead, went to Paisley, where he died at a ripe old age. His wife was in youth Miss Katherine McKeller.

Like some other ancestors of Col. Kilpatrick, Robert Lang, his maternal grandfather, learned the trade of a silk weaver, and lived and died in Paisley. He married Miss Margaret Lang, a native of Greenock, Renfrewshire. In 1851, the mother of our subject came to America, joining her brother Robert, in Cincinnati. She was the mother of three children, the eldest of whom died in infancy; the second, a daughter, Margaret, married and died in Scotland. The mother made her home in Cincinnati, and her death occurred while on a visit to her son, Robert L., October 30, 1874.

He, of whom this sketch is written, attended school quite regularly in his boyhood, and when a youth of sixteen joined the British Army, becoming a member of the Twenty-fourth Regiment, in which he served eleven months. Afterward he was transferred to the Forty-second Regiment, which was well-known as the “Black Watch.” From the history of the State of Ohio, published by Henry Howe, we learn that this was the first regiment that ever trod the soil of Ohio, coming herein 1764, during the time of Indian troubles for the purpose of releasing some three hundred woman and children, who were held captive by the Indians. They were successful in their efforts, and restored their captives to their friends in the settlements.

The first two months of his service Col. Kilpatrick passed in Ireland, thence was transferred to England, where he remained nine months. Next we find him in the Black Watch in Scotland, whence in November, 1842, he accompanied his regiment to the Isle of Malta in the Mediterranean; he reached this port January 1, 1843, and sojourned there, performing severe military duty, until March 17, 1847, then went with his regiment to the Bermuda Islands, where he remained until March 23, 1851, and at that date purchased his discharge. This closed his military career as a British soldier, and he soon afterward came to the United States, proceeding directly to Cincinnati. During half of his term of service in the British Army he was a non-commissioned officer.

After a sojourn of a few weeks in Cincinnati, Col. Kilpatrick came to Springfield and engaged in sign-painting. After working here a short time he returned to Cincinnati, and entering the employ of T. F. & C. A. Davis, to learn the trade of a grainer; he subsequently established a business of his own. He was thus employed at the outbreak of the Civil War, when he left his own business enterprises to serve his country. He nobly discharged his obligations to his adopted land, and not more bravely did the native-born sons of the North go forward in battle, nor more courageously did they offer their lives at the altar of their nation’s freedom, than did this devoted patriot, who although of foreign nationality, could yet inspire many to “rally round the flag” and rouse others to that enthusiasm which was the necessary forerunner of a successful termination of the war.

The faithful helpmate of Col. Kilpatrick for thirty-five years was in her youth Miss Margaret, daughter of John and Ellen (Craig) Lang, both natives of Scotland, where Mrs. Kilpatrick was likewise born. Her early life was spent in Paisley, where she was born, January 12, 1828; having been carefully trained by her worthy parents she was fitted to become the mistress of a large house and the hostess of a charming home which until lately, was the frequent resort of people of culture and refinement, but now she is an invalid. Religiously, Mrs. Kilpatrick belongs to the Presbyterian Church.

Col. Kilpatrick, socially, belongs to the Springfield Lodge, No. 33, I. O. O. F., also to Mitchell Post, No. 45, G. A. R., and is a charter member of the Ohio Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and one of the original members of the Military Service Institution of the United States. He is numbered among the members of the Caledonian Society of Cincinnati, which is the oldest chartered society in the State. He likewise belongs to the Fifth Ohio Volunteer Association, the Union War Prisoners’ Association, and the “Thistle Society” of New York City. He was one of a few young men, who, in 1856, started a Republican Club in the Fifteenth Ward in Cincinnati. Their meetings were held in a carpenter shop, and it was there that Rutherford B. Hayes, who was then a resident of that ward, addressed one of their meetings. Thus it will be seen that Col. Kilpatrick has always been a stanch Republican.

*A portrait was included in the original printed volume.