Colonel Josiah Robins
3rd Alabama Cavalry
Confederate Army
Josiah Robins served throughout the Civil War under Major General "Fightin Joe" Wheeler in the Army of Tennessee. He initially recruited a cavalry company called the "River Rangers" in 1861. After the Battle of Shiloh, the group became known as Company C of the 3rd Alabama Cavalry. He was elected captain by the men of the company. In October 1862, a two week long raid was made into Tennessee in which 800 wagons of a supply train were destroyed, large quantities of commissary stores were burned in Mc Minnville, and the railroad bridge over the Stones River was burned. The cavalry unit rode entirely around Rosecrans' Union Army during the raid. Josiah Robins was severely wounded in the Battle of Shelbyville. His wife took a great risk to come to Shelbyville to nurse him back to health and to deliver some horses. By 1864 he had risen to the rank of colonel, and he was in command of the regiment. He was again wounded at the Battle of Monroe Farm or Monroe Crossroads near Fayetteville, North Carolina. This battle has also been called "Kilpatrick's Shirt-tail Skeedaddle" because Union General Judson Kilpatrick barely escaped capture during a surprise cavalry charge by bolting out of a back window clad only in his night shirt.
Both Josiah Robins and his wife, Sarah Strother (Gregg) Robins, were descendants of Revolutionary War soldiers. Josiah Robins was born in St. Martins, Maryland on October 7, 1825 to John Lyttleton Bowdoin Robins and Henrietta (Showell) Robins. John Robins was the son of John Purnell Robins and Anne (Spence) Robins. John Purnell Robins had been a lieutenant of the "Continental Dragoons" of the Fifth Virginia Cavalry Regiment during the Revolutionary War. Sarah Strother (Gregg) Robins descended from three Revolutionary War soldiers from South Carolina. Their names were William Strother, John Gregg,and Colonel George Hicks. Colonel Hicks served with the legendary General Francis Marion, Colonial South Carolina's "Swamp Fox."
Jeff Young