Horace G. Babcock was born around 1837 in New York to Orrin and Rowena Babcock. His father was a farmer who owned $2,500 of real estate by 1850. He grew up and attended school in Eden, New York, and by 1850, he was also working as a farmer. By the early 1860s, he was working as a laborer in Norwich, Pennsylvania.
He enlisted in the Union army on August 13, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company I of the 42nd New York Infantry. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 6¼ inches tall, with black hair and blue eyes. The regiment took part in the Seven Days’ Battles, the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, and the Battle of Gettysburg. In March 1862, he celebrated the “recent union victories” and “long[ed] to hear the drums beat that shall summon us to forward march towards the capitol of treason and Rebellion, there to stand or fall beside the stars and stripes that I have sworn to support.”
He remained devoted to the Union, declaring that “never was there men so noble so ready to leave their peaceful and happy home to go and fight for justice and right as the men of the proud proud North and I believe as I believe I live that the Stars and Stripes shall again float over every foot of soil in America.” Union officials transferred him to the 190th Pennsylvania Infantry on May 31, 1864. Confederate forces eventually captured him and imprisoned him near Salisbury, North Carolina. He died there in February 1865.