Summary Information
Jacob W. Roby Papers
1861-1907
WVM Mss 11
4.0 linear ft. (2 archives boxes, 2 flat boxes, and 3 oversized folders).
Wisconsin Veterans Museum (Map)
Papers of Jacob W. Roby (1824-1906), who was the captain of Company B of the 10th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War. The bulk of the collection consists of administrative records of Company B, including muster rolls, a casualty list, a company register, discharge papers, quartermaster and sutler records, and officer's manuals. The collection also includes correspondence, primarily about personnel and administrative issues; the Adjutant General file for a desertion case, which includes two letters requesting clemency from President Lincoln; some Confederate documents, including a broadside concerning the murder of a soldier and an 1862 Arkansas newspaper; printed documents discussing pay and other issues sent to Roby by the State of Wisconsin; and a small amount of biographical material.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.wvm-mss00011 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
Jacob W. Roby was born in Oneida County, New York on July 9, 1824. His parents were farmers and he was educated in the common schools of the county. In 1844 he married Esther Moon of Herkimer County, New York, and five children were born of the marriage. In 1845 he became the captain of an Erie Canal boat, a position he held until 1851 when he emigrated to Wisconsin and settled on a 130-acre farm in Dodge County, Wisconsin, which he later expanded to 170 acres.
He enlisted in the Lyon Guards on September 14, 1861 with eighty-four other men from Dodge County. He was elected captain of the unit, and the Lyon Guards mustered into service as Company B of the 10th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry on October 5, 1861. Roby participated in numerous engagements with the 10th Wisconsin including Perryville, where a bullet dented his belt buckle, and Stone River where his right arm was broken by a shell fragment. In the Battle of Chickamauga, when the commander of the regiment was mortally wounded, Roby took and retained command of the regiment, and was later commissioned Lt. Colonel of the regiment by Wisconsin Governor James Lewis.
Roby commanded the regiment in engagements at Buzzard's Roost, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Kenesaw Mountain, Chattahoochee, and Peach Tree Creek. Peach Tree Creek was the high point of Roby's Civil War career. After Roby's horse was wounded, he dismounted and, on his own initiative, ordered his troops to a position just behind the first line of battle. After the first line collapsed he ordered a charge on the Confederate position, and the charge so surprised the enemy that when Roby ordered his troops to fire the Confederate line broke. The 10th Wisconsin suffered only one injury in the engagement. The regiment also later participated in the siege of Atlanta. On November 3, 1864 he mustered out with the rest of the regiment in Milwaukee.
After the war Roby retired to his farm and became financially successful. In 1882 he became embroiled in a lawsuit for breach of promise to marry an 18-year-old woman from Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, although he may have still been married to his first wife at the time. Later he moved to a 200-acre farm in York County, Nebraska where he married for a second time in 1900. Roby died on August 24, 1906.
Scope and Content Note
The papers of Jacob W. Roby are divided into four series, Administrative Records, Biographical Background, Correspondence, and Miscellaneous Documents.
Administrative Records (1861-1867) comprises the bulk of the collection, and is divided into two sub-series, Personnel Records and Property Records. The Personnel Records includes registers, descriptive books, muster rolls, inspection and morning reports, pay records, and a casualty list from the Battle of Perryville. A highlight of the Personnel Records is the case file for a 10th Wisconsin desertion case, which includes two poignant letters to President Lincoln from the soldier charged and his mother and sister pleading for clemency. Also included are personal effects inventories from deceased soldiers and an 1862 officer's manual on how to position soldiers for outpost and patrol duty. The Property Records include a large number of quartermaster reports such as clothing, equipage, and ordnance stores reports, as well as correspondence relating to supply issues. Of particular interest in this series are a quartermaster receipt book with a notation about Libby Prison Hospital in Richmond, Virginia, and the sutler's account book for Company B, which includes a note from the sutler to Roby about settling accounts with him after his representative in the 10th Wisconsin was killed.
Biographical Background (1861-1907) consists of a small number of photocopied documents and articles about Roby. Included are documents relating to Roby's marriage and pension disability claims. There are also pages from a 10th Wisconsin reunion booklet and an article detailing the breach of promise to marry lawsuit brought against him.
Correspondence (1862-1866) comprises correspondence to and from Roby on a variety of personnel and administrative matters. Highlights include correspondence from Roby to the Governor of Wisconsin about a perceived slight in officer promotion, a 'resolution of thanks' sent to Roby from the State of Wisconsin and signed by Governor James Lewis and Secretary of State Lucius Fairchild, and an interesting 1863 letter about the company drummer who was absent without leave.
Miscellaneous Documents (1861-1907) comprises a small number of other documents collected by Roby. Included are documents sent to Roby by the state of Wisconsin relating to pay and other issues; a newspaper article written by a former prisoner at Andersonville Prison; a bit of doggerel about a man who gets robbed by a woman on the train; an 1862 broadside to the citizens of Jackson, Missouri instructing them to turn over the persons who murdered a soldier or face the consequences, which may have been issued by either the Union or Confederate army; and an October 3, 1862 Arkansas newspaper with an article about counterfeit Confederate money and a war report by General Robert E. Lee.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by Jacob W. Roby. The collection was previously known as Accession Number: Record Group 11 and Series 30.
Originally processed by Mark Van Ells in 1992, processed with additions by Jonathan Nelson in 2002.
Contents List
|
Series: Administrative Records
|
|
|
Subseries: Personnel Records
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
1
|
Casualty list, Battle of Perryville, 1862
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
2
|
Company B register, 1862-1863
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
3
|
Descriptive book, 1861-1863
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
2
|
Loose papers, 1861-1865
|
|
|
Ov
3
Folder
3
|
Descriptive lists, 1862-1865
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
3
|
Desertion case, 1864-1865
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
4
|
Discharges, 1862-1865, undated
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
5
|
General personnel records, 1862-1866, undated
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
6
|
Muster rolls, 1861-1862
|
|
|
Ov
1
Folder
3
|
Muster rolls, 1861-1864
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
7
|
Officer's manuals, 1862-1863
|
|
|
Reports
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
8
|
Inspection reports, 1863-1864
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
4
|
Morning report, 1861-1864
|
|
|
Box
4
Folder
2
|
Loose papers, 1864, undated
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
9
|
Pay reports, 1863-1865
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
10
|
Transportation vouchers, 1863-1864
|
|
|
Subseries: Property Records
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
1
|
Clothing issue book, 1864
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
11
|
Loose papers, 1863-1864
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
12
|
Consolidated ration returns, March 1864-May 1864
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
13
|
Property correspondence, 1862-1867
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
14
|
Quartermaster's receipt book, 1861-1863
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
5
|
Quartermaster's clothing record book, 1861-1863
|
|
|
Box
4
Folder
4
|
Loose papers, 1861-1864
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
15
|
Ration savings, September 1863-October 1863
|
|
|
Clothing and equipage reports
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
16
|
1862-1865, undated
|
|
|
Box
4
Folder
1
|
1863-1864
|
|
|
Ordnance and ordnance stores reports
|
|
|
Box
4
Folder
3
|
1862-1864
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
17
|
1863-1864, undated
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
18
|
Sutler's account book, 1862-1864
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
19
|
Vouchers and requisitions, 1864
|
|
|
Series: Biographical Background
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
20
|
Biographical background, 1861-1907
|
|
|
Series: Correspondence
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
21-22
|
Correspondence, 1862-1863
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
1-2
|
Correspondence, 1864-1866
|
|
|
Series: Miscellaneous Documents
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
13
|
Confederate documents, 1862-1864
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
14
|
Ephemera, undated
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
15
|
Newspaper clippings, 1907, undated
|
|
|
Ov
3
Folder
4
|
“War Eagle” newspaper, Pocahontas, Ark., Oct. 3, 1862
|
|
|
Subseries: Wisconsin documents
|
|
|
Box
4
Folder
5
|
1861-1864
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
16
|
1862-1864
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
17
|
Writings, undated
|
|
|
