ORNBAUN, Henry Newton - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

Rev. Henry Newton Ornbaum was born in Crawfordsville, Indiana, June 23, 1837. On February 16. 1855, he was converted at a prayer-meeting, and the same evening he applied for membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church of which he continued an exemplary member until the time of his death. He was licensed to preach, August 17, 1861 and recommended to the Annual Conference for the traveling connection. At the ensuing session of the Northwestern Indiana Conference, held at South Bend, October 10, 1861, he was admitted on trial and appointed as junior preacher on the Zionsville circuit, with Rev. Luther Taylor as his colleague. He laboredf on his circuit with acceptablity and usefulness until near the close of the year, when, feeling that his country called for his sevices, he enlisted in the 79th Regiment Indiana Volunteers. He fought gallantly through a number of engagements the most serious of which were the battles of Murfreesboro and Chatanooga. At the storming of Missionary Ridge on the 25th of November last, he fell, in advance of his company, as they were charging upon the riflepits of the enemy. He was wounded in the thigh by a musekt shot from a rebel only a few yeards from him. Having been conveyed to the hospital at Chattanooga, he wrote with a pencil what proved to be his last letter to his widowed mother, the sefcond day after he was wounded. The wound bled incessnatly, the surgeon being unable to stop the bleeding, and on December 1st, 1863, at six o'clock in the morning, he breathed his last.

Brother Ornbaun was a young man of much promise, and very fair literary attainments. He was a student of Wabash College some three years, but his father dyhing at the time, and other engagements demanding his attention, he did not complete his collegiate course as he had intended. He was amiable in temper, highly conscientious, dignified in demeanor, and afable and agreeable as a companion. Most who knew him loved him, and wherever he went he commanded attention and respect. As a soldier he was brave and chivalrous. "Special mention was made by his Colonel of his bravery in battle," say one of his companions in arms. He was devotedly attached to his aged mother, and in his frequent letters to her he gave vent to the warm affections of his heart in words of cheer and hopefulness. As a Christian he was consistent, true, and faithful in all circumstances. "I would not," says he in one of his letters to his mother, "give the hope of gaining heaven for all the world. How merciful God is to his creatures, in preserving their lives, and giving them time to make their peace, calling and election sure! We have prayer meeting in my tent occasionally, he says in another letter, and we have prayer at night before lying down to rest.

His messmates writes: "His walk, since he has been with us, has been that of a Christian, and he was loved by all in the regiment., It is hard to part with such a man as Newton."

"Mother, " he says in his letter from the hospital, "if I should not get well, do not grieve after me. But I think I shall get well; my wound is what is called a severe flesh-wound. But if I should die, I expect to go to heaven."

His dying words to his mother, as penned by a conmpanion were: "My dear mother, I should like to have seen you, but my wound is bleeding me to death. I was wounded in the discharge of my duty, upon the field of battle, where I was most needed. I expect to meet you in heaven., Tell my brothers and sisters to give their heart to God. I would like to get home, to preach the gospel once more."

Thus died this noble, heroic young minister of the gospel, and Christian soldier. Wm. Graham

Crawfordsville, Ind Dec 15, 1863