Oliver Otis Howard

Howard is born in 1830 in Maine and graduates from Bowdoin College, then West Point in 1854. While posted to duty in Florida, he undergoes a spiritual conversion that prompts him to become a minister. But that ends as the war starts, and he leads the 3rd Maine at First Bull Run. He is a Brigadier on June 1 when struck twice in the right arm at Fair Oaks, Va. resulting in amputation. He recovers in time to replace Franz Siegel as Commander of the largely German speaking XI Corps at Antietam. Then come two setbacks: at Chancellorsville where he is routed by Jackson’s attack on his rear; and at Gettysburg where his troops flee through town, fortunately ending on high ground at Culp’s Hill. But “the Christian General” is favored for his efficiency and personal courage by General Sherman and eventually accompanies him on the March to the Sea in 1865. He is an avowed abolitionist and serves from 1865-74 as Commissioner of the Freedman’s Bureau where he sets up welfare programs to support Black assimilation despite opposition by President Johnson. He is Superintendent of West Point in 1891 before resuming field command in the far west against the Nez Pearce tribes. In 1893 he is awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for heroism at Fair Oaks before retiring in 1894 as a Major General in the Regular Army. The photograph showing him with epaulettes and empty sleeve is probably taken a few years before his death at 78 in 1906.