Colonel O.V. Tracy's letters
Colonel Osgood Vose Tracy, 22 years old
Nellie Sedgwick, age 21
Sedgwick home, 1860
About Me
- Sarah Burrows Winch
- I am Colonel Osgood Vose Tracy's great-great granddaughter who grew up around the corner from where he did in Syracuse, New York. I graduated from Hobart & William Smith College, Geneva, New York with a B.A. in English and history, worked for The Syracuse Newspapers Group, and CFO Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of The Economist, London, in Boston, MA for nearly a decade. When I was a young girl, my maternal grandfather, John Tracy, and I strolled hand in hand through our neighborhood, Sedgwick Farms, where Osgood Tracy and Nellie Sedgwick had also grown up. My grandfather brought their stories alive, showing me Osgood's letters, weapons, mother's diary and the Medal of Honor his brother, William, was awarded. I was amazed by what they endured and intrigued that I knew my great grandmother who had married Osgood's son. The past never seemed far away. My grandfather's love for the story gave me a window to see past my own self and time. He opened up the incredible past, one of the greatest gifts ever given me.