Thomas W. Osborn

Thomas W. Osborn

Thomas Ward Osborn (born March 9, 1833 in Scotch Plains , New Jersey , †  December 18, 1898 in New York City ) was an American Army officer and politician ( Republican Party ) who represented the state of Florida in the US Senate .

Lawyer and officer

Thomas Osborn was born in Union County , which is part of the New York Metropolitan Area . In 1842 he moved with his parents to New York State , where the family settled in Wilna and ran a farm together. In 1854 Osborn took up an academic training, which he completed in 1860 at Madison University in Hamilton . The following year he was inducted into the state bar and began working for a law firm in Watertown .

He wasn't busy there for long, though. Shortly after the start of the Civil War , Osborn joined the Union Army, where he held the rank of lieutenant . In Jefferson County , he assembled a light artillery company that later joined the Army of the Potomac and won several awards. Osborn himself was promoted first to captain , later to major, and finally to colonel .

During his time as a major, Osborn served under Major General Oliver O. Howard and was involved, among other things, in the Battle of Gettysburg , during which he commanded the Army Corps' artillery brigade. He defended Cemetery Hill from attacks by Major General Jubal Anderson Early's forces . Osborn and Howard later moved to the western theater of war together; when his superior was appointed commander of the Army of the Tennessee , Osborn served as inspector general.

Political career

After the war, Thomas Osborn was Deputy Head of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands involved in the implementation of Reconstruction in Florida. During this time he also worked as a lawyer in Tallahassee and also began to be politically active. In 1868 he took part in the state's constitutional convention; after moving to Pensacola , he was elected to the Florida Senate.

A little later Florida got its voting rights back in Congress . Osborn, just 35 years old, was elected Senator, taking the seat that had remained vacant since the resignation of David Levy Yulee in January 1861. He remained in the Senate from June 25, 1868 to March 3, 1873; he did not stand for re-election. After that, he served in 1876 as the Federal Government Commissioner for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia , the first World's Fair in the United States. He then worked in both the literary and legal fields until he died in New York in 1898, where he had since moved.

Web links

• Thomas W. Osborn in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Thomas W. Osborn in the database of Find a Grave (English)