Robert G. Gilmore, a retired farmer in Beatrice, Nebraska, and Civil War veteran, was born on July 28, 1839, in Venango County, Pennsylvania. He enlisted in Company D, Eighty-third Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry on August 17, 1861, and fought in significant battles including Antietam and Gettysburg. Wounded and captured at the Battle of Spottsylvania, he was later paroled and promoted to sergeant. After the war, Gilmore married Lucy M. Clough in 1867 and moved to Gage County, Nebraska, in 1876, farming until his retirement in 1892. Active in the G.A.R., he was a charter member and commander of the Cortlandt Post and a member of Rawlins Post No. 35 in Beatrice.
Robert G. Gilmore, a retired farmer of Beatrice, Nebraska, and a veteran of the Civil War, enlisted at Erie, Pennsylvania, on August 17, 1861, in Company D, Eighty-third Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, Colonel J. W. McLane and Captain O. S. Woodward commanding. Among the battles he participated in were the Seven Days’ Battle before Richmond, Turkey Bend, Second Battle of Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and the other battles and skirmishes of that campaign. He participated in the three days’ battle in the Wilderness, previous to the Battle of Spottsylvania. At the Battle of Spottsylvania, he was wounded and carries a ball in his left leg to this day. At Spottsylvania, he was taken prisoner on May 8, 1864, and on August 22, 1864, he was paroled and sent to Annapolis, Maryland. He enlisted as a private but was promoted to the rank of sergeant for gallantry on the field. His regiment had more killed and wounded than any other in the army, except one. He was honorably discharged on September 20, 1864, and returned to Pennsylvania.
Mr. Gilmore was born on July 28, 1839, in Venango County, Pennsylvania, being a son of William Gilmore, who in turn was a son of Brice Gilmore. William Gilmore was a native of Pennsylvania and followed the trade of carpenter. The maiden name of his wife was Jane Dickey, and she was born in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. The children born to these worthy parents were as follows: Adam C., served in the Ninth Pennsylvania Reserves, and died in 1875; Robert G.; Ira B. served in Company I, Fourth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and now resides in Butler County, Pennsylvania; Quinton B.; Sarah J. Adams, of Utica, Pennsylvania; Agnes I. McCracken, of Utica, Pennsylvania; William W.; and Ann Eliza Whitman. The father died on the old farm in Pennsylvania at the age of fifty-eight and the mother died at the age of eighty years. In politics, the father was a Republican. Both were consistent members of the Presbyterian Church, in which he was a deacon.
Robert G. Gilmore was reared and educated in Pennsylvania, and there in 1867 he married Lucy M. Clough, a daughter of Horace and Ann (Brown) Clough, natives of New York. Ann Clough died in Illinois in 1867, and the father came to Gage County, Nebraska, in 1875, where he died on August 25, 1891.
Mr. Gilmore located in Highland Township, Gage County, Nebraska, on a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, in 1876, but in 1892 retired to Beatrice, where he has since lived. His children are: William B., who lives on a large ranch in Wyoming; Flora Stewart, of Beatrice; Leonard B., who lives on the old farm; and Horace, who lives in Gage County and follows teaching as his profession. The first vote our subject cast was for Lincoln in 1860, and he has since continued voting the Republican ticket. Like the majority of the veterans of the Civil War, he is interested in G. A. R. work and was one of the charter members of the Cortlandt Post, of which he served as commander. He is now a member of Rawlins Post No. 35, of Beatrice. Genial, hospitable, and pleasing in manner, Mr. Gilmore makes and retains many friends and is one of the representative men of the county.
Source: Lewis Publishing Company, A Biographical and Genealogical History of Southeastern Nebraska, 2 volumes, Lewis Publishing Company, 1904.