Robert L. Kimberly served in the 41st Ohio Infantry, a Cleveland-raised regiment first led by William B. Hazen, rising to lieutenant colonel and leading the unit through campaigns including Shiloh, Corinth, Perryville, Stones River, Chickamauga, and the Atlanta and Nashville campaigns. He brought the regiment home to Cleveland in February 1864. After the war Kimberly practiced law and, with Ephraim S. Holloway, wrote the definitive 1897 regimental history of the 41st Ohio.