OCHS May 2024 Meeting

Society President Robert Henderson was the program presenter for the May meeting and shared some interesting background on Civil War Union Brevet Brigadier General William T. Spicely who lived most of his life in Orleans.  From a battlefield commission of captaincy at Buena Vista during the Mexican War, Spicely rose through the ranks to general, commanding the 24th Indiana Regiment during the Civil War. General Spicely and his men assisted Major General Ulysses S. Grant in a major battle preceding the siege at Vicksburg, enabling Union forces to obtain control of the river city from Confederate forces. The victory at Vicksburg gave momentum to the defeat of the Confederacy.

Henderson also provided members with a close up look at Spicely's actual original framed April 1865 Brigadier Commission.

Spicely who died in 1884 is buried in the old historic Greenhill Cemetery in Orleans.