Robert Galbraith’s family were likely fleeing the 1844-1849 potato blight and Great Famine when they arrived in New York City in 1847 from County Donegal, Ireland. They met another devastating tragedy on arrival in 1847 with the unexpected and unexplained death of Robert’s father five weeks later, but eventually prospered in upstate New York by way of the family trade of blacksmithing brought over from Ireland.

Robert had served aboard ships as a United States Marine Guard all four years of the Civil War and was assigned to the famed Union flagship U.S.S. Wabash for unknown reasons by order of Admiral DuPont, as noted in his pension records. Those pension records note that he was born “near Lake Letterkenny” in Ireland. His parish birth and baptism record states he was born in Oak Park, Convoy, County Donegal in northern Ireland on November 6th, 1840.

Prior to enlisting in the Navy in 1861, Robert was an apprentice blacksmith in Poughkeepsie with a probable but as yet unconfirmed cousin, Alexander Galbraith and his wife, Sarah Cochran — both born in Ardummond, County Donegal. Robert mentions Alexander and Sarah and their children numerous times in his letters home to his mother, and affectionately calls him “Alac”.

Once entering the war, Robert served aboard ships as a U.S. Marine Guard all four years of the Civil War and was assigned in 1862 (according to his letters home after he was shipwrecked in 1861) to the famed Union flagship U.S.S. Wabash for the duration of the war to its end, for unknown reasons by order of Admiral DuPont, as noted in his pension records.

It was noted in a letter to his mother on August 9th, 1861 that he was assigned to escort duty for President Abraham Lincoln during the president’s visit to the Navy Yards.

After returning home, he became a pattern maker (tool & die man) for foundry items. He moved from Poughkeepsie and settled in Troy, NY in 1868, married Rachel Ann Hinchman, and had four children: Eleanor, Robert, John and William. He later became a full partner at Vedder Pattern Works (later Bascom-Galbraith Pattern Works in Troy, NY) with a number of home heating stove patents to his credit, according to a informative 1917 obituary published in a pattern making industry magazine.

A box of letters home written by Robert had been kept in the Civil War Special Collection in the New York State Library in Albany and is on a WorldCat academic library catalog listing. The letters were addressed to his mother, Sarah; his sister, Sarah Jane, and his brother James, confirming those members of his family in the 1847 passenger list documenting their arrival in New York from Ireland.

These letters discuss battles, including Robert’s involvement in 2nd Battle of Bull Run in 1862 and the long march back to DC; the movement and disposition of the Wabash and other ships he served on. His November 25th letter of 1861 details his shipwreck aboard the steamboat Governor. He notes engagements and land-based activity of the Marine complement of the Wabash, away and on board. They also include Robert’s detailed and enthusiastic observations of ironclads coming and going, and they mention his tour of the USS Monitor. Civil War historian David M. Sullivan transcribed most of these same letters in 1996 at the NYSL while researching his four volume history, The United States Marine Corps in the Civil War and he generously quotes Robert’s letters home, particularly in the last two volumes.

Those letters also confirmed Robert’s brother William’s death during the Civil War. William fought in a company of Zouaves in the 5th New York regiment and died in June, 1862 during the battle of Gaines’s Mill in VA . This death date information in turn became extremely important, as it later led to brother William Galbraith’s far more extensive army pension documentation, which broke open the wall in Robert Galbraith’s family tree.

Robert and Rachel retired their farm in Latham’s Corners in New York near Albany, where it became a family hub and residence for a sprawling extended family of Galbraiths, Hinchmans and Birds until Rachel’s death in 1930. Robert passed away on January 6th, 1917 at the age of 77, one of the nation’s first and most well-documented Marine Guards in the US Navy.