Wayne Remy

Robert A. Pinn was born in Perry Township in Stark County, March 1, 1843. He was the son of William Pinn. The grandsire of our subject was born in the bonds of slavery in the "Old Dominion." While in servitude his name was Briggs, whose family resided in Fauquier Co., Va. His children were free born, among whom was William, the father of Robert A., who came to Ohio when a young man, living some time in Steubenville, where he worked at the blacksmith’s trade several year. He came to Stark County, residing some time in Canton where he was married, afterward locating in Perry twp. about the year 1833, and raised a family of seven children. –Amanda, Martha, Robert A., Elizabeth, Susan, Levi, and Harriet. After his coming to this township he was engaged in farming remaining here until his death. Our subject was raised on the farm of his father until 18 years of age.

Pinn’s words describe early life for him.

…I experienced all the disadvantages peculiar to my proscribed race. Being born to labor, I was not permitted to enjoy the blessings of a common school education. It is hardly necessary to say that very little can be expected of me, so far as correct compositions concerned…

Most of the information about Pinn is found in a letter Pinn wrote. The following is a description of how his letter was discovered.

…The Manuscript Division (of the Library of Congress) holds a collection of papers of William Bourne, who sponsored a contest in 1866 in which soldiers and sailors of the Union who lost their right arms by disability or amputation during the Civil War were invited to submit writing samples of their penmanship using their left hands. The Bourne Papers include an entry Robert Pinn…

After years and years of strenuous fighting over issues such as slavery and states' rights, the first shots of the Civil War were fired. Pinn writes about his longing to serve his country during this time:

…In 1861, when the whole of the loyal North was aroused by reason of the cowardly assault upon Fort Sumpter, I was very eager to become a soldier, in order to prove my feeble efforts the black man right to untrammeled manhood. I was denied admission to the ranks of the loyalists, on account of my color, not being of that kind which is considered a standard in this country.

In 1863, however, when the Rebellion, which burst out at Sumpter, had assumed higher proportions, it was deemed expedient by the government to enroll the able bodied black men among its defenders.

The Governor of Ohio was very slow in acknowledging this change in public affairs. The Governor of Massachusetts, being of real human nature enlisted two regiments and equipped two regiments before the Ohio Governor became interested in the matter.

On the 19^th of June 1863, -long may it be remembered-a camp was opened near the town of Delaware, Ohio, for the purposed of forming a colored Regiment. In September of the same year the age of twenty I enlisted and joined the regiment, then forming at Delaware and designated as the 5^th US Col. Troops.

In October I was appointed a sergeant in Company "I". –My regiment soon after moved to Norfolk, Va.; where I had my first experience in active military life. We left Norfolk, Va. on the third of December on a scouting expedition through North Carolina, and after a long march having been engaged in several skirmishes returned on the 23^rd of the same month. Cold weather having set in, the next duty assigned was the building of quarters; but we had scarcely completed them, when on the 18^th of Jany, we were ordered to Yorktown, Va. –Arriving there on the 20^th we were brigaded with the 4^th and 6^th regiments of US Colored Troops. Here as at Norfolk we built winter quarters. During our stay at Yorktown under the direction of General Wilster we made several marches up the peninsula; a march into King and Queen County in search of the murderers of Colonel [John A.] Dahlgreen nearly complete our duties for the winter. Preparations had already begun for the historic campaign of 1864, when my regiment was ordered to Old Point Comfort.

In the course of three or four weeks under the direction of General [Benjamin E.] Butler there were assembled at his place nearly fifteen thousand Colored Soldiers; these constituted the brave and justly celebrated 3^rd Division of the 18^th Army Corps and were known by the glorious title of Hink’s old Division.

On the 15^th of June 1864, we went into battle before Petersburg, Va. –Of the successes of that day the country is well informed. I have participated in nearly all of the battles in which my regiment has been engaged, and was wounded before Richmond on the 29^th of September 1864, from which I am now a sufferer, having lost the use of my right arm…

The specific story of Pinn’s injury is detailed in A Walk through Massillon Cemetery.

…When the company commander was wounded at the first volley, Pinn led his Union unit through several fights, although he was wounded three times. Unable to walk after the second injury, he ordered two men to carry him at the head of the company. The third wound rendered him unconscious… All this sacrifice paid off. Pinn was named one of the only four African-Americans in Ohio USCT regiments to earn the Congressional Medal of Honor in the Civil War. He also received a medal from General B.F. Butler.

A claim for an increase of pension, filed after the war, describes his injury.

…He says that the extent of his disability is of such a mature and degree that his totally incapacitated for performance of manual labor by reason of wounds received in the service of the United States and in the line of duty and he is thereby disabled to such a degree as to require frequent and periodical though not regular and constant aid and attendance of another person…

Pinn was described as the bravest of the brave, knowing that he was the loved mark of the Confederate bullet, nothing daunted him.

Pinn’s commanding general, Gen. "Baldy" Smith, said of his men, "No troops ever did better fighting."

The Stark County Bar Association, in 1911, paid tribute to Pinn by writing an accurate account of his life. Much of that has been excerpted to tell of his life after the war.

The Stark County Bar Association writes:

He envinced (sic) more than ordinary ability in the examination of witnesses and the trial of causes. He was a fluent and forceful speaker without bombast or flourish. He was, infact, the first black lawyer in Massillon County.

Pinn was of special character:

He was fair, and loved an open fight – had no taste for technical advantage, and was diligent and untiring in securing evidence and making the fight possible. And those of us who were associated with him in litigation among members of his own race will remember how almost tyrannically he insisted on witnesses telling the anadorned (sic) truth – no shading for his own advantage, he would not have it.

Mr. Pinn’s career as a lawyer among us is accentuated by the fact that he was of the African race, his father being a manumitted slave who came from Virginia in the 40’s ignorant of his ancestry and kin, all engulfed in the vortex of slavery. With all this handicap he bore himself so gently, so modestly, so sincerely, and was so completely at home in the traditions dear to us, so saturated with high ideals of patriotic and civil duty, so full of common sense, so true to the requirements of professional ethics, that he completely disarmed the common prejudice sometimes prevailing against his race. This fact alone – if nothing else, marks his advice and counsel were mainly sought by and given to people of different color from his own, he never forsook his own race and none so poor that he was not ready to help and defend.

Pinn obtained other achievements outside law. He was a member at Hart Post NO. 143 G.A.R. and was gladly heard at all times.

The last of Pinn’s tributes came along after he died. A National Guard Armory bore the name of Robert A. Pinn. This was the first Armory to be named after a black soldier in Ohio. Pinn passed away on January 1, 1911, after a long illness and is buried in Massillon cemetery, Lot number 42, Block number 1, and grave number 12.

Bibliography

Resolutions of the Stark County Bar: On the Death of Robert A. Pinn

Pinn, Robert A. Personal Letter

Obituaries: The News Democrat, Canton, Ohio, January 5, 1911

Articles: The News Democrat, Massillon, Ohio, February 26, 1972

National Archives: Compiled Military/Pension Files. Washington, D.C.

A Walk through Massillon Cemetery

Maintained by the Washington Research History Class

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