Was born in Hartford, Connecticut, son of US Senator Francis Gillette, an abolitionist, crusader of women's suggrage, public education and temperance.
Robert Gillette, joined the Union Army and served in the Antietam Campaign, became invalided, sent home sick, recovered and joined the Navy where he was assigned to the USS Gettysburg.
He took part in both attacks on Fort Fisher. he survived the fighting, but tragically was killed the morning after the surrender, Jan. 16, 1865, when the powder magazine of the fort blew up. The commander of the detachment of sailors and Marines from the Gettysburg which participated in the attack was Lt. Roswell Lamson.
There is an eight-page letter in the Civil War Manuscripts Project from Anne Elizabeth Dickinson of Greenfield, Massachusetts dated Jan. 30, 1865, to Francis Gillette. It is a letter of condolence upon the death of Robert Gillette, Acting Paymaster, USN. Enlisted 1863.
She seemed to think he had been mortally wounded in the battle and had died the next day.
A Brave One at the Fort. --Old B-Runner
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