13th Vermont Infantry
Biography
Royal S. Haskins, credited to Fayston, enlisted 8/25/1862, and mustered in as a private in Co. B, 13th Vermont Infantry, 10/10/1862. he mustered out with the regiment 7/21/1863. (1892 Revised Roster)
The Pictorial History of the 13th Vermont contains the following biographical sketch: "Royal S. Haskins enlisted from Fayston, his native town. He was 21 years old at the time of enlistment and was about the smallest man in the company. His height is given at only 5 ft. 1 1/2 in. When he enlisted he had scarcely recovered from a serious illness and looked very pale and thin so that it was not strange that the sarcastic remark should be made by an observer, "Well! That fellow will make a bully soldier." Any yet that funny looking boy made an excellent soldier and possessed an endurance equal to the best of them. The pale color soon changed to a healthy brown and one would hardly have been able to recognize him as the same boy. The name the boys gave him was "Little Skip." Comrade Haskins married Mary J. Wheeler, of Fayston, soon after his discharge and emigrated to Wisconsin, where he remained till some ten or twelve years ago when he sold out his farm there and went to Western Nebraska where he invested largely in land, hoping that the value of real estate would increase and give him a competency, but those seasons of doubt, which spoiled so many similar plans, come (sic) on and he had a hard struggle for a time but he still continues to reside in that State. Post office, Bertrand, Nebr." (p. 463; photos from page 114)
According to a relative, Royal was the son of Wright Haskins and Chastina Parkhurst (Spauling) Haskins. He removed to Balsam Lake, Polk Co., WI with his wife Mary after the war. He appears there in the 1870 and 1880 Census. They had 8 children: Nathan, Albert, Hiram, Olive, Lucy, Nettie, Luther and Otis. (Roger Haskins, Los Angeles, CA, Royal's cousin)
According to pension record indices, Royal applied for a pension in 1890, from Nebraska, and May applied for a widow's pension on 24 April 1904/7.
The 1893 Roster of Nebraska Veterans, lists Royal as a resident of Pierce, Nebraska that year.