Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/639

Rh again busied himself in literary pursuits in New York city, in which he is still (1888) engaged. He has lately written another work on his native land and the libretto of a comic opera.

OSCEOLA, or AS-SE-HE-HO-LAR (Black Drink), Seminole chief, b. on Chattahoochee river, Ga., in 1804; d. in Fort Moultrie, S. C., 30 Jan., 1838. He was the son of William Powell, an English trader with the Indians, and his mother was the daughter of a chief. In 1808 he removed with his mother to Florida, where he was early distinguished for ability, courage, and hatred of the whites, attained great influence among the Seminoles, and strongly opposed the cession of the tribal lands in Florida. In 1835, while on a visit to Fort King, his wife, the daughter of a fugitive slave, was stolen as a slave, and Osceola, in demanding her release of Gen. Thompson, the U. S. Indian agent, used threatening language. He was seized by order of the agent and put in irons, but was released after six days' imprisonment. Six months later, on 28 Dec., he avenged himself by killing Thompson and four others outside the fort, and thus began the second Seminole war. Osceola immediately took command of a band of Indians and fugitive slaves who on the same day had surprised and massacred Maj. Francis L. Dade and a detachment of 110 soldiers. On 31 Dec., with 200 followers, he encountered Gen. Duncan L. Clinch and 600 U. S. troops at the crossing of the Ouithlacoochee, and after a hard-fought action was compelled to retreat, having been wounded early in the battle. He afterward had several engagements with the troops under Gen. Edmund P. Gaines, and on 8 June, 1836, led a daring and well-conducted assault upon the fortified post at Micanopy, which was repelled with difficulty by the garrison of 300 regular troops. He made an unsuccessful attack on Fort Drane on 16 Aug. and narrowly escaped capture. For more than a year he contended with skill and energy against overwhelming odds; but on 21 Oct., 1837, while holding a conference under a flag of truce with Gen. Thomas S. Jesup near St. Augustine, he was seized with several of his followers and confined at Fort Moultrie, where he died. He was a brave and generous foe, and always protected women and children. Jesup asserted that his act was necessary, as Osceola had repeatedly shown that he would not regard the sanctity of a treaty.

OSCULATI, Gaetano, Italian naturalist, b. in Vedano, Lombardy, 29 Nov., 1808. At an early age he devoted himself to the study of the natural sciences, and in 1830-'1 he visited Greece, Egypt, Asia Minor, and other provinces of the Turkish empire. He embarked for South America in 1834, traversed the greater part of that continent, and in 1836 returned to Europe by the way of Cape Horn. In 1841 he visited Arabia, Armenia, Persia, and the coast of Malabar, and in 1846 he visited this country. After passing hurriedly through Canada, the United States, the Antilles, and Venezuela, he

went to Quito, and thence started on an expedition to the Napo, a tributary of the Amazon. After several days' march he was abandoned by his Indian guides, but he succeeded in reaching the Napo alone, after a journey across a wide expanse of unsettled country and through trackless forests. He suffered for food, and during two weeks subsisted on palm-leaves and a single kind of fruit. In 1848 he returned to Europe with a rich collection. He published &ldquo;Ezplorazione delle regioni equatoriali lungo il Napo&rdquo; (Milan, 1854).

OSGOOD, David, clergvman, b. in Andover, Mass., 14 Oct., 1747; d. in Medford, Mass., 12 Dec, 1822. His ancestor, John Osgood, was one of the founders of Andover. David was graduated at Harvard in 1771, ordained 14 Sept., 1774, and settled in Medford, where he continued as a preacher for nearly fifty years. He was a zealous Federalist, and one of his sermons in 1794, upon Edmund Genest's appeal to the people against the U. S. government, attracted great attention, and passed rapidly through several editions. His election sermon in 1809 was the most noted of his discourses. His sermon in opposition to the declaration of war with Great Britain was published (Boston, 1812), and a volume of his sermons appeared in 1824.

OSGOOD, Emma Aline, singer, b. in Boston about 1852. Early in life she married Dr. Osgood, a physician of her native city. Her first appearance in public was made in Boston, when she was so successful that she was engaged for two years to sing in Canada and the United States. In 1875 she went to England to study oratorio, and made her debut at the Crystal palace in the same year, but did not appear again till 1876, when she accompanied Charles Halle on a provincial tour, and gained great reputation as a vocalist. In this year she also won praise as the soprano in Liszt's new oratorio "Saint Elizabeth," and at the Crystal palace sang frequently selections from Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde," and Gounod's classical compositions. In March, 1878, Mrs. Osgood visited her native country, and appeared with ac- ceptance at Theodore Thomas's concerts in New York, at Cincinnati, and in Canada. She returned to England in the autumn of 1878, sang at the Shakespeare memorial festival at Stratford-on-Avon in June, 1879, and at Christmas in Liverpool in Sir Arthur Sullivan's " Light of the World." In 1880 she appeared at the state concert at Buckingham palace, and in August of that year she revisited the United States and made a successful tour. In oratorio many consider that she is unrivalled. Since 1875 she has resided principally in England.

OSGOOD, Frances Sargent, author, b. in Boston, Mass., 18 June, 1811 ; d. in Hingham, Mass., 12 May, 1850. She was the daughter -of Joseph Locke, a merchant of Boston, but most of her childhood was passed in the village of Hingham. At an early age she displayed a talent for writing verses, and several of her poems, under the signature of "Florence," that were published in the "Juvenile Miscellany," gave her a reputation. During this early period of her life she wrote also for "The Ladies' Companion," which she subsequently edited for a short time. In 1835 she married Samuel Stillman Osgood, a portrait-painter, and soon afterward accompanied him to London, England, where, in addition to other literary work, she wrote for the English magazines. She returned with her husband to Boston in 1840, and soon afterward remoA'ed to New York, where she resided, with occasional intervals of absence, during the remainder of her life. She published, among other works, "The Casket of Fate" (London); "A