William D. was born 24 June, 1846 in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. His tombstone says he served with Company A, 139th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. However, his name is found in the Ohio Civil War Roster as serving as a private with Company D, 95th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment, where he mustered in on 28 July, 1862. Both accounts are probably correct. He'd have been about 15 years of age when he joined up with the Pennsylvania volunteers. They'd have probably learned his correct age and discharged him, and he'd have come to Ohio to join back up.

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"Of the 139th Regiment, Company A was from Mercer County. Mainly Mercer, Leesburg, Hamburg, New Lebanon, and the townships of Delaware, Fairview, and Wolfcreek. The regiment performed its first military service on the field of Second Bull Run battle, where 1,799 bodies were buried which the rebels had left on the ground.

The regiment was present at Fredericksburg but did not participate in the battle. At Chancellorville the regiment lost 123 men, killed and wounded. It was also engaged at Gettysburg, where Company A lost one killed and several wounded. The regiment shared in the Richmond Campaign until 9 July, when it accompanied the Sixth Corps to Washington and thence to the Shenandoah under Sheridan. After Early's defeat it returned to the Army of the Potomac around Petersburg and continued with it until Lee's surrender at Appomattox. The regiment was mustered out shortly thereafter." (Bate's History of Pennsylvania Volunteers)

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At this writing this author has no knowledge of where or when William D. might have entered or left the 139th.

"The 95th Ohio, under Colonel William L. McMillen, had organized at Camp Chase in Columbus, Ohio on 19 August, 1862. The unit was immediately dispatched for Lexington, Kentucky. On 30 August the unit made its initial engagement at Richmond, Kentucky in which it lost 8 killed, 47 wounded and 600 captured. In the following November the men were exchanged, and after a winter spent in re-organizing and drilling, in May of 1863, the regiment was ordered south for the Vicksburg Campaign.

The regiment remained with the besieging forces at Vicksburg, digging canals and fighting on the picket line until a few days before the capture of the city. The unit aided in the capture of Jackson, Mississippi in the operations around Black River, receiving General Sherman's unit's thanks for being the first inside a Confederate battery of four guns, which was captured along with 60 gunners.

The unit participated in Sherman's attempt to storm the works of Vicksburg, where many men were sacrificed. After the fall of Vicksburg, the regiment participated in a second march on Jackson, driving out the Confederate Army. It went into winter quarters near Memphis.

Early in June 1864, the regiment joined the expedition which undertook to strike the Mobile and Ohio Railroad near Tupelo. At Brice's Crossroads, it went into the fight with 19 commissioned officers and 300 muskets, and got back to Memphis with about nine officers and 150 men. One-half of the force had been killed, wounded, or captured.

By this time the unit had participated in forays at Richmond, Kentucky - 30 August, 1862; Jackson, Mississippi - 14 May, 1863; Siege of and assaults on Vicksburg - 18 May to 4 July, 1863; the Big Black River - 6 July, 1863; again on Jackson - 9 to 16 July, 1863; Brandon, Mississippi - 19 July, 1863; Hickahalo Creek, Mississippi - 10 February, 1864; and Brice's Crossroads, near Guntown, Mississippi - 10 June, 1864... ...At Brice's Crossroads, at the head of S. D. Sturgis' force of 4,800 infantry, 3,000 cavalry and 18 guns sent from Memphis to destroy Confederate General Nathan Forrest's cavalry, the Federal cavalry made contact at about 9:30 A.M. at the Crossroads. Waring's brigade had approached on a road that led due south. This road crossed a swampy area about a mile and a half north of the crossroads, and was elevated there to form a sort of causeway about three miles in length. Grierson halted Waring's brigade and sent out reconnaissance. A squadron moving southeast toward Guntown, six miles away on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, encountered enemy pickets after going about a mile. Grierson then dismounted his command and deployed to hold the crossroads until the infantry arrived. The area around was wooded within a one-mile radius, and beyond was open fields to the east and south. Waring's brigade formed a line to the east, and Winslow to the north, about a mile away from the crossroads, and so located as to cover the open fields. Confederate General Forrest, whose commission was to raid and so harass the Union supply lines, was on his way to raid railroad lines in middle Tennessee, when a dispatch from S. D. Lee called him back to meet A. J. Smith's advance. The night of the 9th he learned that the enemy was advancing toward Brice's Crossroads, and he moved out at 4 the next morning to attempt to beat Smith to this point. Lyon's brigade made contact with Grierson's men and probed their defenses while Forrest brought up his artillery and additional troops. At 1:00 P.M. when these reinforcements arrived, Forrest started attacking. Grierson's brigades were driven back to a second line at 2:00 P.M. At this time the Federal infantry started arriving, in poor condition after a five-mile forced march in intense heat, and were under musket fire as they moved into position. Fighting was in dense underbrush. Forrest brought heavy pressure to bear on both flanks of Sturgis' line. About 5 P.M. the Federal flanks began to give way, and confusion soon gave way to panic. 'Before reaching Tishomingo Creek, about 400 yards north of the crossroads', reported Forrest, 'the road was so blockaded with abandoned vehicles of every description that it was difficult to move the artillery forward'. The pursuit continued until dark, and resumed at 1 o'clock the next morning. Sturgis was unable to restore order until he had reached Stubbs' plantation, 10 miles to the north.

A Federal force of 7,800 had been defeated by less than half that number. Sturgis lost 223 killed, 394 wounded, and 1,623 captured..."

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William D. was one of those captured. He was captured 10 June, 1864, and was made a prisoner of war at Andersonville. From there he was sent to various other Confederate prisons. He was mustered out of the army on 9 June, 1865, at Camp Chase, Columbus, on order of the War Department.

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After the Civil War, William D. settled in Summit County, and on 6 December, 1868 he married Mary Viola Cahow. William D. and Mary settled in Akron to raise their family, and by 1870 son Francis M. was a part of that family, followed in 1873 by George Edson Corbin.

William D. toiled at blacksmithing, a skill he presumably picked up in the army. He and Mary were sharing their home with her sister, Sarah E. and her family, Lyman Wolcott and sons Charles and Frederick. By 1874, William D. and Mary had a third child who they appropriately named Lyman Ray.

They also found themselves a part of the 1873 depression, which lasted about five years. By 1880, William was working as a plasterer. John Arthur was born in 1877, and Jesse Wellington came along in 1879. There were now seven mouths to feed in a depression.

Little Sarah Corbin was born in 1882, but died of pneumonia on 19 September, 1883.

By 1884, William and Mary's family had grown to six children with the birth of Ernest Charles. Their seventh child was born 11 March, 1888, but died the same day. The Corbin's last child, William Earl, was born in 1890.

By 1892, William D. had gone back to blacksmithing at the Buckeye Mower and Reaper Works, makers of farm machinery. The children were growing up, marrying, and starting new lives. William's mother, Elizabeth, had come to the Akron area with her oldest son, Abner and his family by the 1880's, and they were living nearby. Elizabeth died in 1893.

Again, depression descended in 1893, and by 1897, William had gone to work at Star Drilling Company, followed by his son Lyman Ray. By 1900, 54-year old William worked as a night watchman.

William D. Corbin died of pneumonia at his home on 10 February, 1908 at age 61 years.

His obituary in the Tuesday evening edition of the Akron Beacon Journal dated 11 February, 1908 read:

"CORBIN -- In Akron, Ohio February 10, 1908

at 509 W. Exchange St., of pneumonia, William

D Corbin, aged 61 years. Burial in Glendale

Cemetery from the house at 10 o'clock."

An article accompanied the obit:

"Lived here 50 years, died Tuesday William D. Corbin, aged 61 years, died at his home, 509 West Exchange St. Monday of pneumonia after an illness of three weeks. He was born in Pennsylvania and lived in Akron 50 years. He leaves a wife and one son. The funeral will be held at the house Thursday morning at 10 o'clock and the burial will be in Glendale Cemetery."

William D., survived by most of his sons, was interred in Section 1, Lot 9 at Mount Peace Cemetery in Akron.

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3F#9 MARY VIOLA CAHOW was born in June of 1847 in Summit County to Robert and Maria Cahow. She died on or about 4 May, 1916. She was buried beside her husband in Mount Peace Cemetery. Mary and William had at least nine children:

3F#8.1 Francis M. Corbin- b 22 June 1869; 3F#8.2 George Edson Corbin- b July 1873, m 1.) in 1895 to Bessie L. Seuss; m 2.) 18 November 1903 to Flora M. Deis. At least two children: 3F#8.2.1 Donald Jacob Corbin- b 17 January 1905, m 21 April, 1924 to Matilda Brigger- b 2 September 1903; 3F#8.2.2 William Dean Corbin- b 16 October 1906, m 23 September 1946 to Ruth Virginia Bartlett- b 30 April 1914;

3F#8.3 Lyman Ray Corbin- b 12 March, 1874, d 20 November, 1902, m 7 November, 1894 to Anna Catherine Barbier; at least two children: 3F#8.3.1 William Roy Corbin- b 3 February, 1896, m 28 March, 1922 to Mary Shantz- b 20 February, 1902; 3F#8.3.2 Henry George Corbin- b 6 August, 1900, m 6 February, 1937 to Martha Slabaugh- b 4 March, 1899;

3F#8.4 John Arthur Corbin- b 17 June, 1877, m 2 December, 1901 to Minerva "Minnie" Mayer- b in Gillstine, Germany; at least two children: 3F#8.4.1 Clyde Harry Corbin- b 29 July, 1904, m 14 May, 1932 to Wilma Faye Green- b 22 March, 1914; 3F#8.4.2 Viola B. Corbin- b 30 November, 1908, m 22 January, 1936 to Charles H. Brown;

3F#8.5 Jesse Wellington Corbin- b 24 June, 1879, m 26 September, 1910 to Anna Margaret Seemann; six children;

3F#8.6 Sarah E. (Elizabeth?) Corbin- b 23 September, 1882, d 19 September, 1883;

3F#8.7 Ernest Charles Corbin- b 14 August, 1884;

3F#8.8 Child Corbin- b 11 March, 1888, d 11 March, 1888;

3F#8.9 William Earl Corbin- b 22 April, 1891, m 16 November, 1910 to Mary Grace Stair- b 23 May, 1891; at least one child: 3F#8.9.1 Merle Corbin- m in 1937 to Lucy Warder.

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