Open Season on Ostertag

There was a time when Sebastian Ostertag was plagued by bullets. More on that in a moment. First, let's meet this guy.

Johann Sebastian Ostertag

He was born in Württemberg, Germany in 1839. He was eight when he migrated with his family to a farm in the Town of Nekimi. Ostertag left the farm in 1861 and joined the Oshkosh Rifles. He was off to fight in the Civil War.

Three months later, Ostertag took a bullet to his right thigh at the First Battle of Bull Run. He got hit again at the Second Battle of Bull Run in 1862. This time, Johnny Reb clipped his right hip.

The Union Army in retreat after the disastrous Second Battle of Bull Run.

The mutilated Ostertag was sent home to heal up. Back in Oshkosh, he got well and got married. Then he returned to his unit. Ostertag now belonged to the Iron Brigade.

The Iron Brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.

At Gettysburg Ostertag was perforated again. He got shot in the face. The bullet entered his left cheek and drove deep into his head, coming to rest behind his right eye. The battlefield doctors wrote him off for dead. But he was still squirming a week later. They finally sent Ostertag to Satterlee Hospital in West Philadelphia where the bullet was extracted. He survived that ordeal, too. The fateful bullet now resides at the Oshkosh Public Museum.

Ostertag convalescing in his "Union Blues" and his head wrapped in bandages.

He got back on his feet and came home to Oshkosh. After a short stint with the railroad, he opened a lager beer saloon and grocery on the west side of what is now South Main Street.

An 1867 drawing with an arrow pointing the way to the front door of what would become Ostertag's saloon and grocery. The view shows the west side of what is now South Main Street (Kansas Street then) between 7th and 8th Avenues. Ostertag's grocery was on the ground floor. His lager beer saloon was above it.

There isn't a trace of that place left.

The empty 700 block on the west side of South Main Street.

Ostertag involved himself with all sorts of endeavors in Oshkosh. Aside from the saloon and grocery, he ran a hardware store, and a farm, and was a Southside alderman. His pugnacity never left him. In 1885, the five-foot-eight-inch Ostertag was charged with assault and battery after he attacked an Oshkosh blacksmith for reasons unknown.

Ostertag retired in 1904 and built a home for himself and his wife at what is now 515 Pleasant Street. His old home is still there.

515 Pleasant Street.

Ostertag died in that house in 1930. He was 90 years old. Johann Sebastian Ostertag is buried in Riverside Cemetery. His grave lies in the shadow of a monument to the Grand Army of the Republic.