Oscar Lionel Cornman was born in Pennsylvania on Dec 4, 1840. He was 20 years old when he entered the service on April 29, 1861. The men from the Stillwater area made up the bulk of Company B. Oscar was one of them. He met his end during a day of very fierce fighting at the battle at Antietam on Sept 17, 1862. Sam Bloomer called Oscar his "pardner". This probably indicates that they were tentmates; they cooked together and watched out for each other. Bloomer was seriously wounded in the on the same day that Cornman was killed. Bloomer wrote the following in his diary for that day. "Wednesday Sept 17th We were up very early then got our coffee & about 7 oclock we fell in line, forded Antietam Creek, marched about 1 mile, formed in line of battle & advanced through fields, woods & over fences & over the field where the Battle commenced early in the morning & which field was covered with dead & wounded of both sides. At last we halted at the edge of a cornfield by a rail fence but still we were in the woods. Had not been at the fence more than 15 minutes before a most terrific fire was poured into the left of our brigade from the rear & front & which fire came quickly down the line to the right wher we were.The firing was very light for a time but I knew I had to go to the rear for I was shot in my leg just below the knee. I had just got behind a large tree when the whole line was ordered to fall back, which they did leaving me behind. The advance of the secesh soon made their appearance& passed by me but did not go a great ways further but formed their picket line about 40 rods in fron of me & shortly their line came up & formed just where our line had stood, which left me about 40 rods in front of their line. A wounded prisoner, I was let on the field all day & the shot & shells of both armies playing in or about there all day cutting off limbs of trees & tearing up the ground all around me & which made it a very dangerous place. But as luck would have it, I got through safe. By that fence my pardner Oscar Cornman was killed & one of Co A, likewise some were wounded & all the wile the battle was raging terribly on our left. Secesh were quite gentlemanly toward me, but they took from me my sword which was a present to me from Lieut Muller, likewise two revolvers for which I did not care so much." Cornman's obituaru was published on Sept 30, 1862, in the Stillwater Messanger. Death of Corporal Oscar L Cornman.--Not a day or an hour passes but kindred hearts are made desolate, and communities are made to mourn through the barbarism of this unholy rebellion. This fact was brought home to our citizens a few days since--as it has been scores of times before--by the announcement of the death of Corporal Oscar L Cornman, son of L R Cornman, Esq, of this city, who fell at the battle of Antietam, on the 18th instant. Corporal Cornman was a member of Company B, First Minnesota regiment, and was one of the first to enlist under the call for three months volunteers. He passed through all the dangers and vicissitudes of that regiment for near eighteen months, until the battle of Antietam, when he fell early in the engagement, a rifle ball penetrating the forehead and killing him instantly. Mr Cornman was a young man of twenty-two years of age, and enlisted in the war as a matter of principal and patriotism. He fell like a patriot, on the post of duty. We have known him intimately and well for a number of years, and among our acquaintances we know of none worthy of more esteem for his manly virtues and intellectual endowments. He was beloved by all his comrades in the camp, and alike by every citizen with whom he became acquainted. Corporal Cornman's body was interred by company B, apart from all the others, in a beautiful grove near the battlefield. May it rest undisturbed by the clangor of battle until the great Day when kindred and friends and comrades shall meet to separate no more forever. It is hard to separate thus from friends whom we love, and for whom we love, and for whom we have entertained high hopes and expectations; it is hard for the young and hopeful and promising youth to be thus cut off in the strength and vigor of opening manhood-with bright anticipations and dazzling hopes just before him:-but if death must come thus early, the battlefield and post of duty is the place for the patriot to die. They never fail who die In a great cause: They but augment the deep and sweeping thoughts Which overpower all others, and conduct The world, at last, to Freedom. It is needless for us to assure the afflicted family of the deceased that they have the deepest sympathy of their friends and acquaintances in their double affliction-another son and brother being a prisoner of war in the rebel army since the taking of Fort Donnelson some six months ago. Oscar lies buried today in the Antietam National Cemetery, Section 5 Lot A, Grave 1. Next to him lies Sgt John McEwen, the comrade from Company A, who died next to Cornman on the battlefield. Sources: The Stillwater Messenger, Stillwater, MN., Sept. 30, 1862. The Stillwater Messenger, Stillwater, MN., Feb. 23, 1864, p 2. Family Tree Maker, CD351, Roll of Honor:Civil War Union Soldiers, Volume XV. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
