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Thomas Rodman Robeson.
Second Lieutenant 2d Mass. Vols. (Infantry,) May 28, 1861; first Lieutenant, November 30, 1861; Captain, August 10, 1862 died July 6, 1863, at Gettysburg, Pa., July 3.Thomas Rodman Robeson was born in New Bedford, November 7, 1840. He was a son of Thomas Rodman and Sibyl (Washburn) Robeson. Through his mother he was a descendant of Roger Williams. His father was long engaged in the shipping business, and died August 13, 1848. He was a son of Andrew Robeson, a prominent merchant and successful manufacturer of New Bedford. Andrew Robeson established, under many discouragements and difficulties, the print-works which bore his name in Fall River, the first establishment of the kind in the State, and made the business a very prosperous one. The Robeson family is of Scotch origin, and a portion of it resided in Germantown, Pennsylvania, for many years. When thirteen years old, Robeson was sent to the school of Mr. Thomas Prentiss Allen, at Sterling, in Worcester County, and remained under his instruction two years. Lieutenant Arthur Dehon was one of his classmates at Sterling. His mother having removed to Brookline in 1854, he was next put under the instruction of Mr. William P. Atkinson, in that town, and was by him fitted for college, except that, immediately before entering college, he studied for about two months, during Mr. Atkinson's absence in Europe, under the direction of Mr. Francis Marion Tower, at Boston. He entered Harvard College in 1857. He did not take high rank as a scholar, either at school or in college; but there, as in after life, he was in all things manly, generous, and honorable, won the respect and esteem of all his acquaintances, and made many friends. He took much interest in the College societies, and was a member of the Institute, and the Porcellian and Hasty-Pudding Clubs.
