He was born in
Monroe Township, Ohio. He was educated at the
Clermont Academy. Corbin was teaching school and studying law when the
American Civil War broke out. Corbin volunteered as a
second lieutenant in the
83rd Ohio Infantry in July 1862 and transferred to the
79th Ohio Infantry the next month. In November 1863 he was commissioned a
major in the
14th United States Colored Infantry. He eventually rose to be
lieutenant colonel and
colonel of this regiment, and participated in the
Battle of Decatur and
Battle of Nashville. He was mustered out in March 1866. After the war, he became a First Class Companion of the
Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, a military society composed of Union officers and their descendants. In May 1866 he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the
17th Infantry of the
Regular Army. He was promoted to
captain in the 38th Infantry, a
Buffalo Soldier regiment, in July 1866. The 38th Infantry was consolidated with the 41st Infantry to form the
24th Infantry in November 1869. Corbin was appointed to the official staff of President
Rutherford B. Hayes, serving at the
White House from 1877 to 1881. He was attending Hayes' successor,
James A. Garfield, when Garfield was shot in 1881, and was present at his death in
Elberon, New Jersey. He became a
major in the Adjutant General's Department in June 1880, serving in the Department of the South and the
Department of the Missouri. He was promoted to
lieutenant colonel in June 1889, serving in the Department of Arizona, the Adjutant General's Office in Washington, and the Department of the East. In May 1896 he returned to the Adjutant General's Department in Washington as a
colonel. He was elevated to Adjutant General of the U. S. Army with the rank of
brigadier general in February 1898. He was promoted to
major general in June 1900. He took command of the newly created Division of the Atlantic in January 1904, then was given command of the
Division of the Philippines in November 1904. He took command of the Northern Division in February 1906 and was promoted to
lieutenant general in April 1906, making him the senior ranking officer on active duty in the U.S. Army. He retired in September 1906 and continued to live in
Washington, D.C. Corbin died in September 1909 at
Roosevelt Hospital in
Manhattan, New York City, where he had gone for treatment. He is buried as
Henry Clarke Corbin in Section 2 of
Arlington National Cemetery. His portrait was painted at least twice by the Swiss-born American artist
Adolfo Müller-Ury, once in 1899, and again in 1904, the latter of which was donated by Mrs Edythe Patten Corbin to the National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. in 1941, transferred to National Portrait Gallery in 1971. ==Military awards==