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Otterbein Civil War Soldiers Biography

This guide details the lives of Otterbein Civil War Soldiers.

Robert Innis III | 133rd Ohio Voluntary Infantry

Robert Innis III | 133rd Ohio Voluntary Infantry
by Shannon Bauchert

           Robert Innis III, the son of Robert Innis Jr. and Mary Webb, was born on April 28, 1836 in Franklin County, Ohio.  He was the fourth child out of nine children to be born unto his parents. According to the 1860 Federal Census Records, Innis resided in Clinton Township, in Columbus, Ohio before enlistment.  His occupation was a peddler.  Before entering the war, Innis was unmarried and without children.[1]

            During the Civil War, Innis enlisted at the age of twenty-eight in the 133rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry.  On May 2, 1864, the 133rd O.V.I. regiment was mustered into service at Camp Chase.  Innis was assigned to Company A.  The 133rd O.V.I. was specifically designed to be in service for only one hundred days.  Their main purpose in the war effort was to destroy Southern railroads which would prohibit supplies from reaching the Confederate Army, and to repair telegraph lines for the Union Army’s benefit. On August 20th 1864, their service in the war ended.[2]

            Following the war in 1870, Innis resided in Etna Township in Licking County.[3]  However, in 1880, according to the Ohio Census Records, Innis is listed to have lived on 1200 E. Rich Street in Columbus, Ohio.[4]  In addition to this, somewhere between the year 1870 and 1880, Innis married Sarah Longman of West Virginia. Together the two of them had four children: Lyman Harrison Innis, born on June 16, 1871, Henry (sometimes shown as Harry) Innis, born on 1873, Charles Innis, born in 1875 and finally a daughter, Nettie Innis, born in 1878.[5]

            Innis lived until the age of sixty-seven (though his obituary states seventy), when he died in his orchard on October 26, 1903.[6]  He was buried the next day at Greenlawn cemetery (Lot No.99, Section 57, Grave No.1) in Columbus, Ohio.[7]   Though he is listed on the Otterbein Civil War Monument, his affiliation with Otterbein College is uncertain.

 

[1] 1860 United States Census, Clinton Township, Franklin County, Ohio, Ohio Historical Society Archives Microfilm, 144.

[2] Official roster of the soldiers of the state of Ohio in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1866, Vol. VIII (Cincinnati, Ohio: The Ohio Valley Press, 1888).

[3] 1870 United States Census, Etna Township, Licking County, Ohio, Ohio Historical Society Archives Microfilm, 242B.

[4] 1880 Ohio Census, Franklin County, The Columbus Metropolitan Library Microfilm.

[5] Family Tree of the Innis Family received from Sam Roshon, Historical Librarian at the Columbus Metropolitan Library on Saturday, February 12, 2005.

[6] Robert Innis, obituary, Columbus, Ohio, The Columbus Evening Dispatch, October 1903, Vol. XXXIII, No. 118, The Columbus Metropolitan Library, Microfilm.

[7] Grave Registration Card for Robert Innis, Ohio Historical Society Archives Microfilm, Ohio: October 26, 1903.