★ ★ Howard, Oliver O.

Oliver Otis Howard​

Born: November 8, 1830

Birthplace: Leeds, Maine

Father: Rowland Bailey Howard 1795 – 1840

(Buried: Leeds Center Cemetery, Leeds, Maine)​

Stepfather: Colonel John Gilmore 1790 – 1864

(Buried: Union Cemetery, Leeds, Maine)​

Mother: Eliza Otis 1804 – 1888

(Buried: Rosehill Cemetery and Mausoleum, Chicago, Illinois)​

Wife: Elizabeth A. Waite 1832 – 1911

(Buried: Lakeview Cemetery, Burlington, Vermont)​

Married: February 14, 1855 in Portland, Maine

Children:

Major Guy Howard 1855 – 1899​

(Buried: Prospect Hill Cemetery, Omaha, Nebraska)

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Grace Ellen Howard Gray 1857 – 1949​

(Buried: River View Cemetery, Portland, Oregon)​

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Chancey Otis Howard 1863 – 1934​

(Buried: Lakeview Cemetery, Burlington, Vermont)​

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Harry Stinson Howard 1869 – 1960​

(Buried: Lakeview Cemetery, Burlington, Vermont)​

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Elizabeth Ann Howard Bancroft 1871 – 1941​

(Buried: Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery, Wilmington, Delaware)​

Signature:

Education:

Attended Monmouth Academy in Monmouth, Maine​

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1850: Graduated from Bowdoin College​

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1854: Graduated from West Point Military Academy – (4th in class)​

Occupation before War:

1854 – 1855: Brevet 2nd Lt. United States Army, Ordinance​

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1855 – 1857: 2nd Lt. United States Army, Ordinance​

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1857 – 1861: 1st Lt. United States Army, Ordinance​

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1857 – 1861: Assistant Math Professor, West Point Military Academy​

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1861: Resigned from United States Army on June 7th​

Civil War Career:

1861: Colonel of 3rd Maine Volunteers Infantry Regiment​

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1861: Temporarily Commanded a Brigade at 1st Battle of Bull Run​

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1861 – 1862: Brigadier General Union Army, Volunteers​

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1862: Participated in the Virginia Peninsula Campaign

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1862: Builder of Wharves and Roads during Peninsula Campaign​

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1862: Wounded twice Battle of Fair Oaks, Virginia​

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1862: Wounded in right arm causing amputation of right arm​

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1862: Participated in the Battle of Centreville, Virginia​

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1862: Covered the retreat to Washington, D.C.​

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1862: Brigade Commander at Battle of Antietam, Maryland​

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1862 – 1869: Major General Union Army, Volunteers​

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1862: Participated in the Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia​

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1863: Commander of 11th Army Corps Army of the Potomac​

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1863: Corps Commander at Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia​

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1863: Corps Commander at Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania​

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1863 – 1864: Commander of 11th Army Corps, Army of the Cumberland​

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1863: Corps Commander Battle of Chattanooga, Tennessee​

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1864 – 1865: Commander Army of the Tennessee​

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1864: Led his troops in the Atlanta, Georgia Campaign​

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1864: Wounded during Battle of Pickett's Mill, Georgia​

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1864: Leader of right-Wing during Sherman's march to the sea​

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1864: Served in the fighting at Griswoldville, Georgia​

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1864 – 1886: Brigadier General United States Army​

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1865: Leader of right-Wing during Carolina's Campaign​

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1865 – 1874: United States Commissioner of Freedmen's Bureau

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1869: Mustered out of volunteer service on January 1st​

Occupation after War:

1864 – 1886: Brigadier General United States Army​

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1865 – 1874: United States Commissioner of Freedmen's Bureau​

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Leader in the founding of Howard University​

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1872: Special Indian Commissioner to hostile Apaches in N.M. Terr.​

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1874 – 1881: Commander U.S. Army, Department of Columbia​

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1877: Served against hostile Nez Perces Indians led by Chief Joseph​

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1881 – 1882: Superintendent of West Point Military Academy​

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1882 – 1886: Commander U.S. Army, Department of the Platte​

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1884: Made Chevalier of Honor by the French Government​

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1886 – 1894: Major General United States Army

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1886 – 1888: Commander U.S. Army, Department of California​

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1888 – 1894: Commander U.S. Army, Department of the East​

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1893: Recipient of Medal of Honor for role at Battle of Fair Oaks, VA.​

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1894: Retired from United States Army on November 8th​

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Visited Soldiers camps during Spanish American War​

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Delegate of Army and Navy Christian Commission​

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President American Tract Society​

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President Congregational Home Missionary Society​

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Author of Autobiography and Life Among Hostile Indians​

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Lecturer on his experiences in the Army​

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Died: October 26, 1909

Place of Death: Burlington, Vermont

Cause of Death: Stroke

Age at time of Death: 78 years old

Burial Place: Lakeview Cemetery, Burlington, Vermont

Medal of Honor Citation

The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Brigadier General Oliver Otis Howard, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 1 June 1862, while serving with U.S. Volunteers, in action at Fair Oaks, Virginia. Brigadier General Howard led the 61st New York Infantry in a charge in which he was twice severely wounded in the right arm, necessitating amputation.

 

[USS ALASKA]

Anniversary Bump

Birthday

08 Nov 1830

Oliver Otis Howard (d.1909), Major General (Union volunteers), was born. Born in Leeds, Maine, Oliver O. Howard had graduated from Bowdoin College and was fourth in his class at West Point before teaching math at the military academy. At the outset of the Civil War, Howard, an abolitionist, was made a colonel in command of the 3d Maine Regiment. After leading a brigade at the 1st Battle of Bull Run, Howard was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers in September 1861. At the June 1, 1862, Battle of Seven Pines, Howard led a brigade against superior numbers in a heated battle. The picture of bravery, Howard stayed in the thick of battle leading and animating his men. Even though two horses were shot from under him and his right arm was shattered by two bullets, he continued to spur on his men until the Confederates retreated. Howard's arm was amputated and he eventually received the Medal of Honor for his bravery at Seven Pines. Howard was promoted to major general of volunteers in November 1862 after he led a division at Sharpsburg and Fredericksburg. In charge of the XI Corps at Chancellorsville, Howard and his men were severely routed by Gen. Stonewall Jackson and his Rebel troops. On July 1, 1863, at the Battle of Gettysburg. Howard was briefly the overall commander. His troops were again forced back, but Howard had the presence of mind to select Cemetery Hill to retreat to and anchor Union forces. He commanded the 4th Corps in the Atlanta campaign, and the Army of the Tennessee in the devastating March to the Sea and through the Carolinas. On May 12, 1865, Howard was chosen to head the Freedmen's Bureau. Though he was honest and a devout champion of former slaves, the agency was riddled with corruption. Howard faced a court of inquiry in 1874 because of his corrupt subordinates in the bureau, but he was cleared of all charges. Howard continued to serve the army as a commander and was also superintendent of West Point. He retired in 1894.

November 8

8 November 1731 – Benjamin Franklin opened the 1st US library. The first circulating library in America, the Library Company of Philadelphia, was founded by Benjamin Franklin and others. 1830…

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Journal Article
General O. O. Howard and the "Misrepresented Bureau"
John Cox and LaWanda Cox
The Journal of Southern History
Vol. 19, No. 4 (Nov., 1953), pp. 427-456

https://www.jstor.org/stable/2955086

Full article at above link on JSTOR with Google sign-in (In the upper right-hand corner of the linked page, there is a 'Log in' button. If you have a Gmail account, you have a Google sign-in and this will allow for free reading of 100 articles a month).

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[Saint Jude]

People who think Howard was "an abolitionist from his West Point days," as Ezra Warner wrote, are mistaken. Howard was against the expansion of slavery into the territories, then he became anti-slavery because he thought it had to "go by the board" if the North wanted to win the Civil War. He didn't become an outright abolitionist until late 1862, right before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The Cox article is definitely worth reading.