Osgood Towns Hadley (January 19, 1838 – October 5, 1914) was a Union Army soldier in the American Civil War who received the U.S. military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor. Hadley was born in

Nashua, New Hampshire Nashua is a city in southern New Hampshire, United States. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 91,322, the second-largest in northern New England after nearby Manchester, New Hampshire, Manchester. Along with Manc ...

, on January 19, 1838. He married Susan F Carter of Peterborough, New Hampshire, on November 14, 1860. She died September 17, 1861, and Hadley enlisted and was mustered into Federal service November 27, 1861, at Peterborough, New Hampshire. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for extraordinary heroism on September 30, 1864, while serving as a corporal with Company E,

6th New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry The 6th New Hampshire Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Service The 6th New Hampshire Infantry was organized in Keene, New Hampshire, and mustered in for a three-year enlistm ...

, at Pegram House, Virginia. Despite heavy enemy fire, Corporal Hadley retrieved and defended his colors and brought it back to his regiment. His Medal of Honor was issued, on July 27, 1896. After returning to New Hampshire, he married Sarah Naomi Ball on September 22, 1865. She died July 4, 1867. The twice-widowed Hadley married a third time on November 25, 1868, to Lucy H. Brown Hadley. They had a son Willis Osgood Hadley (1870–1916) before she also died on January 15, 1871. He died at the age of 76, on October 5, 1914, having outlived three wives, and was buried at the Southborough Rural Cemetery in Worcester County, Massachusetts. His son only survived him by two years, dying at the Glencliffe Sanitorium from tuberculosis at age 45. The Osgood T. Hadley Memorial Bridge in Southborough, Massachusetts, is named in his honor. Osgood_Hadley

Medal of Honor citation

Notes

References

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External links

Company C, 6th New Hampshire living history organization

Company E, 6th New Hampshire living history organization
1838 births 1914 deaths American Civil War recipients of the Medal of Honor People from Nashua, New Hampshire People of New Hampshire in the American Civil War Union Army soldiers United States Army Medal of Honor recipients {{AmericanCivilWar-bio-stub