Sergeant John H. Corbin

By Dr. Gladys Turner Finney

Sergeant John H. Corbin was born free in Ohio about 1842. His parents, William Corbin,
born about 1798, and Susan Mordecai Carter Corbin, had been enslaved in Virginia. His mother
was born in 1804 and was emancipated at age nineteen by John Parkhill of Henrico County
Virginia. William and Susan were married, January 23, 1825 in Ross County, Ohio. Susan Corbin
died February 9, 1874 in Cincinnati, Ohio. William Corbin died January 29, 1875 in Cincinnati,
Ohio.

John H. Corbin enlisted in the military October 16, 1861, at Camp Wood, Fond du Lac,
Wisconsin. He fought as part of the 14th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, Company A.
The 14th Wisconsin was mustered into federal service of the United States, January 30, 1862.
John H. Corbin was promoted to Quartermaster Sergeant on August 31, 1862. He reenlisted on December 12, 1863, and was reappointed Quartermaster Sergeant. He was discharged on
October 9, 1865 at Mobile, Alabama.

The circumstances of how John H. Corbin came to be a member of the Wisconsin Company 14-A
are unknown. "Company F of the 29th Wisconsin Infantry was the only African-American Unit
credited to Wisconsin. It was composed of Black soldiers who agreed to take the place of white
Wisconsin residents. Most came from Illinois or Missouri. A handful also joined from other states"
according to the Wisconsin Historical Society.

John H. Corbin married Virginia C. Baker on February 8, 1871 in Cincinnati, Ohio. They
had three children.

He migrated to New Orleans and shortly after his arrival obtained employment as teacher in the public schools. He soon became principal of McDonough School, Number 5. The school was
located in the historic West-bank Algiers Neighborhood.

John H. Corbin died September 19, 1878 in New Orleans during the Yellow Fever Epidemic
along with his brother, Henry A. Corbin, who had been Private Secretary to Governor P.B.S.
Pinchback. "The high estimate in which he was held by all who knew him was attested by the large number of people who attended his funeral and evinced in their sorrowful faces how deeply they
felt the loss they had sustained." Honorable William G. Brown said of the two brothers in a
condolence to a cousin in Cincinnati: "With different dispositions, straight-forwardness and integrity
will inevitably command esteem."

After John H. Corbin death, his widow, Virginia C. Corbin, applied for a Civil War
Widow's pension which she received until her death July 4, 1903.

Sergeant Corbin was the brother of Professor Joseph Carter Corbin, founder of Branch Normal
College, now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. He was the maternal uncle of Cyrus
F. Adams and John Quincy Adams, prominent newspaperman of the late 19th and early 20th Century.

Sources:
Roster of Wisconsin Volunteers, War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865, Volume 1, p. 772.
Civil War Widows Pension Application
The New Orleans Weekly, 30 November, 1878, p.2.