TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS: THE RECORD OF THE FIFTY-FIFTH OHIO VOLUNTEER INFANTRY WITH SOLDIER PRESENTATION INSCRIPTION

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Item Code: 897-73

By Captain Hartwell Osborn and Others. Published by A. C. McClurg & Co, Chicago, IL: 1904. Front eps, owner book-stamp: “R.A. Weaver.” 364 pp., ills., maps. In blue glazed cloth, 9 x 6,25”, with gilt cover & spine lettering. Exhibits slight wear at the extremities, else VG and handsome. Found inside the book are newspaper clippings – Osborn’s obituary, and that of Dr. Henry K. Spooner, who served as Assistant Surgeon of the 55th Ohio, Surgeon of the 61st OH, and later surgeon in charge of 1st Division, 20th Corps.

On an inside front page is a period ink inscription: “To Lt. Co. C. P. Wickham / “Grave cautious true and my loving comrade” / Hartwell Osborn”. A photo plate page between pp. 186 – 187 features images of Wickham and Osborn.

Charles Preston Wickham (September 15, 1836 – March 18, 1925) was a 19th-century congressman and judge from Norwalk, Huron County, Ohio. Wickham attended the public schools, the Norwalk Academy, and the Cincinnati Law School. He was admitted to the bar in 1858 and practiced in Norwalk, Ohio. During the American Civil War, he enlisted as a private in Company D, Fifty-fifth Regiment, Ohio Volunteers, in September 1861. Appointed 1st Lt. on 10/20/61; promoted to Captain and transferred to Co. I, 55th Ohio on 10/2/62; promoted to Major on 6/27/64; and finally to Lt. Colonel by Brevet on 3/13/65. He was mustered out of the service July 11, 1865 and resumed the practice of law in Norwalk. He served as prosecuting attorney 1866-1870 and was elected judge of the court of common pleas of the fourth judicial district in 1880 and 1885. Wickham was then elected as a Republican to the Fiftieth and Fifty-first Congresses (March 4, 1887 – March 3, 1891) and served as chairman of the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures (Fifty-first Congress). He died in Norwalk, Ohio on March 18, 1925 after being struck by a car and was interred in Woodlawn Cemetery.

Hartwell Osborn was 21 years old when he enlisted on 11/20/61 and on that date was commissioned 2nd Lt. of Co. I, 55th Ohio Infantry. Transferred to Co. H, 2/12/63. Listed as POW & wounded at 5/2/63 at Chancellorsville (Exchanged). The regimental after battle reports makes mention of Osborn: “Maj. Stevens, Capt. Robinson, and Lieut. Osborn and Gould are in the enemy's hands, all severely wounded, except Maj. Stevens, of whom but little is known.” Promoted to Captain and transferred to Co. B on 8/4/63. Mustered out on 7/11/65 at Louisville, KY. Member of GAR Post #540 (Gen. John A. Logan) in Evanston, IL of which he served as post commander. Osborn died on 11/13/1914 in Evanston and is buried in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.

The 55th Ohio was organized and mustered into service, January 1862. The unit participated in the 1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaign against Jackson, and in Pope’s Northern Virginia Campaign, which included the 2nd Battle of Bull Run. Joining the 11th Corps, it was engaged at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, and, later on, after transfer to the Army Cumberland, the Atlanta Campaign & march to the sea and through the Carolinas with Sherman. Mustered out in July 1865, the 55th lost 143 men killed and mortally wounded, and 119 by disease for a total of 262. Solid Ohio regiment, present at Gettysburg.  [jp/ld]

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