Major General Oliver O. Howard (USA)

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Hangzhou, China (Wisconsin, USA)
Major General Oliver Otis Howard (USA)

Oliver Otis Howard was born in Leeds, Maine on 8 November 1830. He attended Monmouth Academy, Kents Hill School, and graduated from Bowdoin College in 1850. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1854, fourth out of 46 cadets. He was appointed brevet second lieutenant of ordnance, served at the Watervliet Arsenal near Troy, New York, and was the temporary commander of Kennebec Arsenal in Augusta, Maine. In 1857, he was transferred to Florida for the Seminole Wars. He converted to evangelical Christianity and considered resigning from the Army to become a minister. His religious proclivities would later earn him the nickname “the Christian general”. Howard was promoted first lieutenant in July 1857, and returned to West Point the following September to become an instructor of mathematics.

At the outbreak of war, Howard was appointed colonel of the 3rd Maine Infantry regiment and temporarily commanded a brigade at the First Battle of Bull Run. He was promoted to brigadier general on 3 September 1861, and given permanent command of his brigade.

On 1 June 1862 at the Battle of Fair Oaks, he was wounded twice in his right arm, which was subsequently amputated. He received the Medal of Honor in 1893 for his heroism at Fair Oaks. Brig. Gen. Philip Kearny, who had lost his left arm, visited Howard and joked that they would be able to shop for gloves together. Howard recovered to rejoin the army for the Battle of Antietam, commanding a division in the II Corps. He was promoted to major general in November 1862 and replaced Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel as commander of the XI Corps in April 1863. The mostly German immigrant soldiers of the corps resented Howard and called for Sigel’s reinstatement.

At the Battle of Chancellorsville, on 2 May 1863, his corps was on the right flank of the Union line, northwest of the crossroads of Chancellorsville, “in the air”, not anchored by a natural obstacle. Howard failed to heed warnings from Army of the Potomac commander Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, and “Stonewall” Jackson struck his flank before dark, routing the XI Corps and disrupting Union plans.

At Gettysburg, the XI Corps arrived on the field in the afternoon on 1 July 1863. Poor positioning of the defensive line by one of Howard’s subordinate division commanders, Brig. Gen. Francis C. Barlow, was exploited by the Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell’s Confederate corps and once again XI Corps collapsed and fled through the streets of Gettysburg. These two failures led to another nickname, “Uh-Oh Howard”.

On Cemetery Hill, south of town, Howard quarreled with Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock about who was in overall command of the defense. Hancock had been sent by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade with written orders to take command, but Howard insisted he was the ranking general present, eventually relenting.

Howard blamed his corps’ failure on the collapse of Maj. Gen. Abner Doubleday’s I Corps collapse to the west. Doubleday was removed from command, but the reputation of XI Corps was ruined. XI Corps remained on the defensive around Cemetery Hill withstanding assaults by Maj. Gen. Jubal Early on 2 July and participating at the margin of the defense against Pickett’s Charge on 3 July.

Howard’s XI Corps and Henry Slocum’s XII Corps were transferred to the Army of the Cumberland in Tennessee under the command of Joseph “Fighting Joe” Hooker. In the Battles for Chattanooga, the corps joined the impulsive assault that captured Missionary Ridge and force the retreat of Gen. Braxton Bragg.

In July 1864, following the death of Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson, Howard became commander of the Army of the Tennessee, fought in the Atlanta Campaign, and led the right wing of Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s famous March to the Sea, through Georgia and then the Carolinas. By the war’s end, Sherman would commend Howard as a corps commander of “the utmost skill, nicety and precision.”

From May 1865 to July 1874, Howard was commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau in charge of integrating freed slaves into American society. He often clashed with President Andrew Johnson, who strongly dislike the welfare aspects of the Bureau, and tried to return political power to Southern whites. The Bureau was very active in helping blacks organized themselves politically and became a target of partisan hostility.

In 1866, Howard and others socially concerned groups founded Howard University.

Howard negotiated a peace treaty with Cochise in Arizona on 12 October 1872. He was placed in command of the Department of the Columbia in 1874. He fought in the Indian Wars against the Nez Perce. Chief Joseph criticized Howard for starting the war by trying to rush the Nez Perce to a smaller reservation.

Howard was superintendent of the United States Military Academy, commanded the Department of the Platte, and the Military Division of the Pacific. From 1888 until his retirement in 1894, he commanded the Department of the East at Fort Columbus on Governors Island in New York Harbor. He died in Burlington, Vermont on 26 October 1909.

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