Thomas Ward OSBORN, Congress, FL (1833-1898)

OSBORN, Thomas Ward, a Senator from Florida; born in Scotch Plains, Union County, N.J., March 9, 1833; moved to New York in 1842 with his parents, who settled in North Wilna; attended the common schools and graduated from Madison (now Colgate) University, Hamilton, N.Y., in 1860; studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1861; during the Civil War entered the Union Army in 1861 as lieutenant and became captain, major, and colonel of Battery D, First Regiment, New York Light Artillery; appointed assistant commissioner of the Bureau of Refugees and Freedmen for Florida 1865-1866; settled in Tallahassee, Fla., and commenced the practice of law; appointed register in bankruptcy in 1867; member of the State constitutional convention in 1868; moved to Pensacola, Fla.; member, State senate; upon the readmission of Florida to representation was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate and served from June 25, 1868, to March 3, 1873; was not a candidate for reelection; served as United States commissioner at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1876; moved to New York City and resumed the practice of law; also engaged in literary pursuits; died in New York City, December 18, 1898; interment in Hillside Cemetery, North Adams, Berkshire County, Mass.

Bibliography

Osborn, Thomas Ward. No Middle Ground: Thomas Ward Osborne’s Letters from the Field (1862-1864). Edited by Herb S. Crumb and Katherine Dhalle. Hamilton, NY: Edmonston Publishing, 1993; Osborn, Thomas Ward. The Fiery Trail: A Union Officer’s Account of Sherman’s Last Campaigns. Edited by Richard Harwell and Philip N. Racine. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1986.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present