FREDERICK and HIRAM ROBINSON16th CAVALRY and 3rd PROVISIONAL CAVALRYTOGETHER IN WAR -- In February 1864, two sons of Hiram Robinson andAurillia Cutler enlisted in the 16th Cavalry -- the Sprague LightCavalry. Hiram supported his family by working as a bloomer inClintonville. Hiram, Jr. the elder brother, enlisted on February 13th,and nine days later, Frederick Talmage Robinson, younger by two years,enlisted. Both were mustered in Company A on March 4th. The regimenthad been in existence for about six months and was assigned to patroland reconnoiter northern Virginia along west of Washington as part ofthe Defenses of Washington in the Department of Washington -- JohnSingleton Mosby country.As members of the 16th Cavalry, Fred and Hiram were engaged intwenty-five, battles and skirmishes in 1864. In March 1865, the 16thwas in battle only three more times before the war ended. By order ofthe War Department, the 13th and 16th Cavalries were consolidated onJune 23rd, and named the 3rd Provisional Cavalry. The brothers wereboth mustered out on September 21, 1865 and returned to Clinton County.The Plattsburgh Daily Republican carried Hiram's obituary on July 18,1916 -- "The death of Hiram Robinson. Jr. occurred yesterday afternoonat Saranac about 8:30 in the morning. Mr. Robinson had been in failinghealth for some time, although his death was wholly unexpected.He was born in Saranac in 1845 and was one of fifteen children, nine ofwhom grew to be men and women. After President Lincoln's call forvolunteers in 1861, Mr. Robinson enlisted with the 16th New YorkCavalry and served three years in Grant's Command in the West.After the war, he returned to Saranac where he lived until his death. In1913, he attended the Gettysburg Reunion where he met several of his oldcomrades.He is survived by his wife and three children, Thomas of Schenectady,John E. of Philadelphia, and Mrs. Ethel Tucker of Saranac: two sisters,Mrs. C. H. Dana of Plattsburg, and Mrs. S. T. Wilson of Saranac, and Dr.John T. Robinson of Plattsburgh. Mr. Robinson was seventy-one years ofage and a member of the John S. Stone Post G. A. R.The funeral will be held on Thursday at 11 am at the M. E. Church inSaranac."Hiram was buried in the Independence Cemetery in 1920. His wife,Elizabeth Starkey, joined him there in 1920.His brother, Frederick, with whom he went to war, died in 1903 in Genoa,IL, about 70 miles west of Chicago. He supported his family, includinghis widowed mother, Aurillia, as a druggist. He was buried in the GenoaTownship Cemetery in Genoa, next to his wife, Ada VanAlstine, who haddied in 1885.
