Harmon, Oscar F.

Born: 1827-05-31 Monroe County, New York

Died: 1864-06-27 Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia

Flourished: Danville, Illinois

Oscar F. Harmon was a schoolteacher, attorney, state legislator, and U.S. Army officer. Harmon attended school at Limi, New York, and at the Williston Seminary in East Hampton, Massachusetts. Deciding to become an attorney, he read law for several years, earning admission to the New York bar in 1850. Harmon moved to Danville, Illinois in 1853, and began practicing law with Oliver L. Davis, with whom he worked for many years. In February 1854, Harmon married Elizabeth Hill, with whom he had two children. In 1858, Harmon won election to the Illinois House of Representatives, representing Vermilion County in that body from January to February 1859. In 1860, he was practicing law in Danville and owned real property valued at $20,000 and had a personal estate of $8,000. In September 1862, Harmon entered the U.S. Army as colonel of the 125th Illinois Infantry. He served with distinction at the battles of Perryville, Stone's River, Chickamauga, and Missionary Ridge. He was killed in battle at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain.

H. W. Beckwith, History of Vermilion County (Chicago: H. H. Hill, 1879), 406-7, 416; Lottie E. Jones, History of Vermilion County Illinois (Chicago: Pioneer, 1911), 1:390-91; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Vermilion County, 21 February 1854, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Danville, Vermilion County, IL, 18; Roger D. Hunt, Colonels in Blue: Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin: A Civil War Dictionary (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2017), 62-63; Gravestone, Spring Hill Cemetery and Mausoleum, Danville, IL. Illustration courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL.