William Osborn (Medal of Honor)

He faced repeated fighting during the long Apache campaigns.

William Osborn, also recorded as William Osborne, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1837. He served in the United States Army’s 1st Cavalry and reached the rank of sergeant in Company M. His Medal of Honor belongs to the campaigns against Apache peoples in Arizona during the early 1870s.

The award recognized service over a campaign rather than a single, fully described encounter. The citation states, “Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apaches” (Congressional Medal of Honor Society, https://www.cmohs.org/recipients/william-osborne). It is the complete citation, and the Society identifies 1872 as the year of the action. Other accounts associate his service with George Crook’s operations during the winter of 1872–1873.

Osborn received the Medal of Honor on 12 April 1875. The surviving recipient record connects him with Boston as his place of enlistment accreditation and with Washington, District of Columbia, as his place of death. He died in Washington on 17 May 1876 and was buried in the United States Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery, where his grave is recorded in section K. His military identity survives under both spellings of his surname.