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O.C. Bosbyshell
(1839 - 1921)
Home State: Pennsylvania
Branch of Service: Infantry
Before Antietam
In 1860 he was a 21 year old law student living in his widowed mother's home in Pottsville, PA. He enrolled there and mustered on 18 April 1861 as a Private in Company H, 25th Pennsylvania Infantry -the Washington Artillery - and served as one of the "First Defenders" in Washington, DC. He mustered out with them on 29 July. He enrolled again, on 20 August 1861 at Harrisburg and mustered on 1 October as 2nd Lieutenant, Company G, 48th Pennsylvania Infantry. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on 5 May 1862 and Captain on 3 June.
On the Campaign
He led his Company in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862.
The rest of the War
He was promoted to Major of the regiment on 23 July 1864 and mustered out with them on 1 October 1864.
After the War
In 1870 he was living in Philadelphia, PA, and by 1880 he was a coiner at the US Mint there. In 1920 he was a retired widower living alone in a boarding house in Philadelphia.
References & notes
Birth
01/03/1839; Vicksburg, MS
Death
08/01/1921; Philadelphia, PA; burial in West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, PA
1 Bosbyshell, Oliver Christian, The 48th in the War: being a Narrative of the Campaigns of the 48th Regiment, Infantry, Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, during the War of the Rebellion, Philadelphia: Avil Print. Co., 1895, pp. 73 - 85 [AotW citation 5387]
2 Bates, Samuel Penniman, History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-65, Harrisburg: State of Pennsylvania, 1868-1871 [AotW citation 28901]
3 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Adjutant-General, Pennsylvania Civil War Veterans' Card File, 1861-1866, Published <2005, first accessed 01 July 2005, <http://www.digitalarchives.state.pa.us/archive.asp?view=ArchiveIndexes&ArchiveID=17> [AotW citation 28902]