Oscar Bradford Sharpless, Civil War Soldier, Deputy Sheriff and Railroad man

    Pennsylvania sent 630,000 soldiers to fight in the Civil War between 1861 and 1865, second only to New York. Oscar Bradford Sharpless of Danville, Montour County was among those caught up in the patriotic fervor and enlisted when the call came for men to step forward. Sharpless enlisted in Company “H” of the 93rd Pennsylvania Regiment in 1861. During his four years of enlistment, Sharpless wrote many letters home to family members in the Danville area. Most were saved and later transcribed by his youngest daughter Lois in the 1930’s. Those letters provide a vivid insight into camp life, a soldier’s anticipation of letters from home, and personal opinions of Company politics, and his overall view of the war. Battles mentioned in his letters include Antietam, Williamsburg, Malvern Hill, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, the Siege of Petersburg, Weldon Railroad, and Appomattox Courthouse.

    Although there are conflicting birthdates, we believe Sharpless was born on July 25th, 1839. We do know his parents were Joseph B. and Mary Runyon Sharpless. Among his siblings was a sister Dillie, whom he writes to, and mentions in many of his letters. A brother Seth Kinman Sharpless also served in the Civil War and went on to become a sheriff and later a member of the Wyoming Territorial Legislature. A bit more on that later in this story.

    Below are a few excerpts from the Oscar Sharpless letters that provide a look at his life as a Civil War soldier.

Fort Good Hope, Maryland

December 5, 1861

    “I tell you, it is worth all the hardships of a soldier to see what I have seen, to stand on the dome of the Capitol, and look in all directions and see the white tents of the Army of the Union.”

White Oaks Church, Virginia

March 30, 1862

    “I was the happy recipient of a letter from home last night….” It seems to me there must be some mistake in the mail, for I have written at least five if not more since hearing from you, and you seem not to have received them.”

(The following letter refers to the Battle at Sharpsburg or Antietam)

September 21, 1862

Camp Near Williamsport    

    “The day that the great Battle was fought at Sharpsburg, our division made a reconnaissance to within two miles of Harper’s Ferry: The distance we marched that day was twenty-five miles. The next day we came to the battleground to have a pop at the gray backs, but they had left. I went out to the ground. I tell you it was the sharpest fought battle we have yet had. The enemy made a desperate stand, but it was no go. The Danville Invincibles were in it. They lost eight killed and seventeen wounded (pretty rough handling, that.)”

 January 17, 1863

 Camp near Fairfax Station

    “While n the run, we were on skirmish, where we did not dare raise our heads or the Reb sharpshooters would pick us off. I layed from daylight til dark and did not stir two foot from the place where I first layed down. I have done the hardest service in the last ten days I have done at all.”

    Sharpless was wounded twice during the war, in the Battle of Gettysburg in July of 1863 and at Spotsylvania Courthouse in May of 1864.  Below are a few lines he wrote home from Cuyler, U.S.A. Hospital at Germantown after being wounded at Spotsylvania.

May 25, 1864

Cuyler U.S.A. Hospital

    “My arm is getting well. The Doctors say it will be apt to break out again as it is healing too fast. I am afraid my arm is going to be a little stiff. I think the ball lodged near the large leader on the underside of my arm. I have had the toothache very bad or rather the jaw ache. The whole right side of my face hurt me. I got one of my back teeth pulled yesterday. It relieved me a great deal.” 

    While researching Oscar’s life, an archivist from Oklahoma provided this writer with the following information from Andreas' History of Nebraska, Western Historical Company, Chicago, 1882.

    "OSCAR B. SHARPLESS, a freight conductor on the Union Pacific Railroad. He was born in

Northumberland County, Pa., July 25, 1839. At twenty-one years of age, he entered the employ of the D. L. R. R. at Scranton, Pa., and was engaged one year as a brakeman and baggage master. In 1861 he enlisted in the Ninety-third Pennsylvania Infantry as a private, serving in all four years and four months.

    He was promoted to First Lieutenant, and on April 2, 1865, was brevetted Captain for gallant and meritorious service at the assault before Petersburg, Va. He came to Nebraska in May 1867, located at Omaha, and entered the employ of the U. P. R. R., was a brakeman for nine months, afterward conductor of freight trains and yardmaster on the end of the track during the building of the road through to Utah. He returned to Omaha in November 1869 and was then conductor of freight and passenger trains for three and a half years at that point, after which he visited California for six months, then re-entered the employ of the U. P. R. R. in December 1873, and conducted from Cheyenne, W. T., for seven years. He returned to Omaha in November 1880 and has been engaged in his present capacity since. He was married at Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, on April 4, 1880, to Eugenia Armbruster, a native of Ohio. They have one daughter--Vera."

    Further records from the Pennsylvania State Archives in Harrisburg indicate Oscar had at least five children. Vera Dell was born in November of 1881, Norma Franklin was born in October of 1883, Joseph Bradford was born in January of 1887,and George Nagle was born in January of 1889, all in Cheyenne. The youngest, Lois Eileen, was born in Blackwell, Oklahoma in June of 1895.

       One important milestone in America’s history in which Sharpless purportedly had a part was the “Wedding of the Rails.” As a railroad man much his life, it makes sense that Sharpless could have taken part in the ceremony May 10, 1869 in Promontory Point, Utah commemorating the completion of the first Transcontinental Railroad across the United States.

    Another significant event in America’s history in which Sharpless is said to have taken part was the land rush in the Cherokee Strip. Sometime before 1893, Sharpless moved to Kansas to prepare for the Cherokee Strip Run. On September 16th, 1893, more than 115000 people raced to claim one of the 42,000 parcels of land available. On that day, he and his oldest daughter Vera took part in the greatest land rush in American history. Information from Wikipedia explains the background leading up to the historical event:

    “The Cherokee Outlet, more often referred to as the Cherokee Strip, was located in what is now the state of Oklahoma, in the United States. It was a sixty-mile (97 km) wide strip of land south of the Oklahoma-Kansas border between the 96th and 100th meridians. It was about 225 miles (362 km) long and in 1891 contained 8,144,682.91 acres (32,960 km²). The Cherokee Strip was, in actuality, a two mile strip running along the northern border of much of the Cherokee Outlet and which was the result of a surveying error.  

    In 1889, Congress authorized a commission to persuade the Cherokees to cede their complete title to the land. After a great amount of pressure, and confirmed by a treaty Congress approved on March 17, 1893, the Cherokees agreed, for "the sum of $8,595,736.12, over and above all other sums" to turn the title over to the United States government.  On September 16, 1893, the eastern end of the Cherokee Outlet was settled in the Cherokee Strip land run, the largest land run in the United States and the largest event of its kind in the history of the world. This section of land is still known as the Cherokee Strip, and the label has often been used to refer to the whole of the Cherokee Outlet.”

    Other information on the life of Oscar Sharpless: Raised in the Quaker faith, in the 1870’s, Sharpless was one of only two 32nd Degree Masons west of the Mississippi according to information from the Pennsylvania Archives.

    While living in Wyoming, he became a deputy sheriff during the Johnson County Range Wars and went on buffalo hunts with Buffalo Bill Cody.

    Sharpless spent his later years with his family in Blackwell, Oklahoma where he died on June 27, 1912.

    Civil War Soldier, railroad man, deputy sheriff, and a participant in two significant historical events in this nation’s history, Oscar Sharpless lived a full life. Montour County, and Pennsylvania can take pride in yet another individual who answered his country’s call, in war, and in everyday life. 

Sources:

• Civil War Letters of Oscar Bradford Sharpless (Pennsylvania State Archives)
• Andreas' History of Nebraska, Western Historical Company, Chicago, 1882.
• Photo on Find A Grave Added by:  Greg Keller on 19 Dec 2023