OSCAR F. WILBER
- Program
- Subject
- Location
- Lat/Long
- Grant Recipient
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NYS Historic
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People
- 3974 Church Road, Allegany, NY
- 42.172908, -78.500612
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Allegany Area Historical Association
OSCAR F. WILBER
Inscription
OSCAR F. WILBERCIVIL WAR PRIVATE BURIED HERE
DIED IN 1863 FROM WOUNDS
REC’D AT CHANCELLORSVILLE.
SUBJECT OF WALT WHITMAN'S
1864 ESSAY "A NEW YORK SOLDIER".
WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION 2018
Oscar F. Wilber served in the 154th NY Infantry during the Civil War. Injured at Chancellorsville, he met Walt Whitman at Armory Square Hospital where he was being treated for his wounds, from which he succumbed in 1863. His story inspired Whitman to write his well-known essay, “A New York Soldier.” Wilber’s thighbone is preserved at the National Museum of Health & Medicine in Maryland.