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Biography of Oliver Otis HowardName: Oliver Otis HowardBirth Date: November 8, 1830 Death Date: October 26, 1909 Place of Birth: Leeds, Maine, United States Nationality: American Gender: Male Occupations: general Oliver Otis Howard Oliver Otis Howard (1830-1909), a general on the Union side in the American Civil War, was commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau and helped establish an educational system for Southern African Americans.Oliver Otis Howard was born on Nov. 8, 1830, on a farm in Leeds Township, Maine. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1850 and entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. After graduating fourth in his class in 1854, he held minor Army appointments before returning to West Point as an instructor of mathematics.At the outbreak of the Civil War, Howard became colonel of the 3d Maine Regiment. He held important commands in the Army of the Potomac and participated in most of the major battles in the eastern theater. He lost his right arm at the Battle of Fair Oaks, Va., in 1862. A devout Congregationalist, he earned the sobriquet of "the Christian Soldier." He commanded a Union Army corps at …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…in the West in 1877 and 1878. He was superintendent of West Point from 1880 to 1882. From 1886 until his retirement in 1894, he commanded the prestigious Division of the East. Howard wrote 10 books, several dealing with his work among Native and African Americans. He died on Oct. 26, 1909. Associated Organizations Associated Events United States Civil War, 1861-1865 Further Reading The Autobiography of Oliver Otis Howard (2 vols., 1907) is a basic source. A sympathetic modern biography is John A. Carpenter, Sword and Olive Branch: Oliver Otis Howard (1964). See also George R. Bentley, A History of the Freedmen's Bureau (1955), which treats Howard impartially. William McFeely, Yankee Stepfather: General O. O. Howard and the Freedmen (1968), is critical of Howard.Famous Indian chiefs I have known, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1989. Weland, Gerald, O.O. Howard, Union general, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 1995.Weland, Gerald, Of vision and valor: General Oliver O. Howard, a biography, Canton, OH: Daring Pub. Group, 1991. |