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O. D. Greene
(1833 - 1904)
Home State: New York
Education: US Military Academy, West Point, NY, Class of 1854;Class Rank: 26/46
Command Billet: Staff Officer
Branch of Service: Staff
Unit: Sixth Army Corps
Before Antietam
After West Point he was appointed brevet 2nd Lieutenant, 2nd US Artillery on 1 July 1854 and commissioned 2nd Lieutenant on 25 November. He was stationed in California to 1855, at Fortress Monroe, VA, (to 1857), then at Fort Leavenworth (KS, where he married in 1859.
He was promoted to 1st Lieutenant on 25 April 1861 and was commander of Battery G, 2nd US Artillery at First Bull Run. He was appointed Captain and Assistant Adjutant General (AAG) in the Staff Corps in August and Major/AAG in July 1862.
On the Campaign
He was Major General William B Franklin's Assistant Adjutant General and Chief of Staff, Sixth Army Corps at Antietam. He is mentioned, as are most of General Franklin's staff, in the General's report on the battle - but not specifically for his actions there. He was later awarded the Medal of Honor for forming troops under fire at Antietam.
The rest of the War
He was assigned as Lieutenant Colonel/AAG from August to December 1862, but not formally promoted to that rank. He was promoted to Captain of the 2nd Artillery on 1 October 1863 while still on staff duty, and was honored by brevets during the war for bravery at Bull Run (to Captain), Crampton's Gap (Lt. Colonel), and Antietam (Colonel), and finally to Brigadier General at war's end, for "gallant and meritorious" service.
After the War
He was on a leave of absence from September 1864 to September 1866, but then continued in Regular Army service, in administrative posts in the South and West to 1884, then in Washington DC. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and AAG in 1887 and to Colonel in 1892, serving in Missouri and California. He retired on 25 January 1897.
References & notes
His service from Heitman1 and Cullum.2 His Cullum number is 1656. His picture from Uriguen.3 Personal details from family genealogists. His gravesite is on Findagrave.
Heitman and other sources have his middle name as "Duff". That was probably his son's middle name. Thanks to g-g-grandaughter Susan Ohman Baldwin for helping us get this right.
He married Catherine " Kate" Rich (1840-1880) in October 1859 and they had 12 children between 1860 and 1880. Oliver does not seem to be directly related to General George Sears Greene. Oliver's father was George Saunders Greene (1786-1875).
Birth
1/25/1833; Scott, NY
Death
03/19/1904; burial in National Cemetery (Presidio), San Fransisco, CA
1 Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Vol. 1, pp. 475-76 [AotW citation 26215]
2 Cullum, George Washington, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the US Military Academy, 2nd Edition, 3 vols., New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1868-79, Vol. II, pp. 590-591; Vol. IV, pg. 96 [AotW citation 26216]
3 Uriguen, Mikel, Photo Gallery (Generals and Brevet Generals), Generals of the Civil War, Published c. 1998, first accessed 01 January 1998, <http://www.generalsandbrevets.com/>, Source page: /bg/bg3.htm [AotW citation 26217]