American Historical Ephemera & Photography

Sixth plate, hand-colored tintype portrait of Galen H. Osborne seated in a studio setting with hat in hand, resting his arm on a table covered with the American flag. Partially legible inscription on tintype verso identifies the location as "Beaufort, SC." (Strong clarity and contrast, few surface abrasions, including slight surface wear to subject's cheek). Housed in half pressed paper case with gilt design, with penciled identification inside case, "Galen H. Osborne / Special Services / NY Herald. / Taken at Beaufort, South Carolina, May 17, 1862, and forwarded by Adams' Express."

[With:]

AL, North Edisto (15 miles south of Charleston) South Carolina, May 21, 1862, to his wife. Incomplete letter, 1page. (Water stains and wrinkling.) His last paragraph, though incomplete, is interesting: "Of course you have heard of the escapade of the  steamer Planter, under a crew of brave Africans from Charleston. I was the only correspondent at Port Royal at the time, and managed to get an interview with the black Captain in time to get an account (ends here)...."

Robert Smalls (1839-1915) was born into slavery in Beaufort, SC and grew up in the city influenced by Gullah culture, and, essentially, becoming bilingual (which would help him in public service later). At 12-years of age, he was sent to Charleston to hire as a laborer. He worked a number of jobs on the docks, becoming familiar with Charleston harbor.
At 17 he married a slightly older woman with two children, and determined to buy freedom for the entire family. He learned that it would cost him $800, of which he only had $100 saved. So he began looking for another source of freedom or income, and came up with a plan to capture a Confederate and turn it over to the Union Navy.  He managed to accomplish this with the CSS Planter on May 12, 1862. After turning over the ship, he continued to serve the Union Navy.

Galen Hamilton Osborne was born in 1836 in Deansville, NY. He graduated from Hamilton College in 1857. He purchased the Oneida Chief newspaper that same year and changed the name to Chief and Courier and sold the paper two years later. He seems to have gone to work for the New York Herald about this time. When war broke out, he headed for where the action was. The New South newspaper for Oct. 24, 1863 reported: "The following gentlemen comprise the Newspaperial Corps at present on duty in the Department of the South: Messrs. N.G. Shepherd and George Boweryem, of the New York Tribune; Messrs. Oscar G. Sawyer and Galen H. Osborne, New York Herald; Mr. Whittemore, New York Times; Mr. W.T. Crane, artist for Frank Leslie." Osborne, and likely many of the aforenamed men, was also a member of the "Bohemian Brigade," a club formed by a group of Civil War correspondents, which included artist, Winslow Homer. The New York Times reported Osborne's death on Nov. 29 in Port Royal / Hilton Head, S.C., in its paper of Dec. 4, 1864, but no cause of death was listed.