Within a week of his 18th birthday in January, 1862, William O. Robison enlisted in Company “F” of the 16th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, which was recruiting in counties in the center and east of the state.
If there is a defining date in the personal history of William O. Robison, it’s January 18, 1862, the day he enlisted in the Army. His three-and-a-half years with his regiment affected his life profoundly — the camaradarie and friendships; the experience of combat and of organization and discipline; and especially his injuries and other assaults on his health. These defined the rest of his life. It influenced the selection of the trade he entered after the war and where he decided to live. He socialized with other veterans, married a pro-Union girl whose family had traumatic war-time experiences, too, and was eventually buried with military honors in a Grand Army of the Republic Cemetery in Seattle.
I have already noted that William O. attempted to join the Iowa cavalry the previous summer with his brother Julius, and was discharged within a few weeks — probably for being under age.
In a deposition connected with the first pension claim he filed in December 1886, William O. recalled in detail his first day at camp and how he caught the measles. The handwriting is that of a recorder taking down William O.’s verbatim dictation.
The paragraph at the bottom of the page says:
I enlisted Jan’y 18″. I went to des Moines that night left the next day going to Camp MacClelland above named where I arrived Jan’y 22″ at night. After supper I went to quarters to get [to] bed. There were two sick men there who next morning were broken out with measles. That was when I was exposed. I broke out nine days afterward.
Whether these recollections of events over a quarter of century earlier are perfectly accurate or not we can’t say. William O. was attempting to make a case for disability due to service in the Army. But at least it shows that these times were still vivid in his imagination and memory.