National Native American Heritage Month: Edward Olney, U.S. Navy Sailor

Edward Olney was born on July 26, 1799, in the town of Union in Maine’s mid-coast region. He was a member of the Penobscot Tribe, which is now formally called the Penobscot Nation.  Olney first enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1843. Olney eventually left this military branch but rejoined it in 1863 in the midst of the American Civil War.

As a sailor in the Union Navy (the name for the U.S. Navy throughout that war), Olney was assigned to the steam frigate USS Wabash. (The accompanying photo of this ship was taken a few years after the end of the war in 1865.) Wabash became part of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron during Olney’s service on board the vessel.

The main objectives of the squadron involved enforcing the Union blockade of the ports of the Confederacy along the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina and preventing the delivery of supplies to and from that unrecognized breakaway republic. As one of the sailors aboard Wabash, Olney participated in the Union’s assaults on the Confederate fort known as Fort Fisher near Wilmington, North Carolina. These military campaigns took place in both December 1864 and January 1865.

Olney’s second tour of naval duty came to an end in 1865. He died in Philadelphia on October 8, 1867, and is buried in Mount Moriah Cemetery in that area of Pennsylvania.

Photo Credit: Public Domain

For more information on Edward Olney, please check out https://friendsofmountmoriahcemetery.org/about/notable-burials/native-american-sailors/