Robert H. Carnahan

Robert Huston Carnahan (21 September 1823 in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania – 14 June 1913 in Danville, Illinois) was a Union Army officer during the Civil War. He was a grain merchant before the American Civil War and a superintendent of a coal mine after the war.

William Carnahan was born in Cumberland county as was his first wife, Mary Houston and had two children, Robert and Andrew. He worked the farmlands to provide for his family until his removal westward. At twelve years old, he moved with his father somewhere in Fountain County, Indiana after his first wife died in 1824, where William married another woman, Margaret Cooper, and they had 5 children. He died in 1870 while his second wife died in 1882.

Later, the regiment proceeded to Pea Ridge where he became part of the Army of the Southwest led by Brigadier General Samuel Ryan Curtis and went to Helena, Arkansas. They were with General William T. Sherman during the Siege of Vicksburg and the Yazoo pass expedition.

After the battle, Carnahan's regiment was sent to Saint Paul, Minnesota to join General Henry Hopkins Sibley and was given command to scout all over the Dakotas and Montana to deal with the Native Americans, until he returned to Fort Snelling at October 10, 1865, when he was honorably mustered out of the Union army. He was connected with that business after which he was chosen as quartermaster and worked as a commissary at the National Soldiers' Home in Quincy, Illinois at the opening of the institution for six years.

Robert H. Carnahan died on June 14, 1913, at Danville, Illinois. He is buried at Spring Hill Cemetery, Danville.

Personal life Carnahan is said to be a stalwart Republican. He belongs to the Masonic Fraternity and had been a Freemason since 1865. He was awarded the Knights Templar degree at the commandery of Danville. He attended a local Presbyterian church with his wife.