Oliver Otis Howard

Oliver Otis Howard (1830-1909), American Civil War general, who subsequently became deeply involved in helping the former slaves. Born in Leeds, Maine, he was educated at Bowdoin College and at the U.S. Military Academy, where he taught mathematics from 1857 to 1861. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Howard resigned his regular army commission and became colonel of the Third Maine Volunteers of the Union army. He took part in the First Battle of Bull Run (1861); the Peninsular campaign (1862), where he lost an arm; the Battle of Antietam (1862); and the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg and the Chattanooga campaign (all 1863). The following year he commanded the right wing of the celebrated march to the sea from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia, under General William Tecumseh Sherman. He was eventually promoted to major general in the regular army.

As commissioner (1865-74) of the Freedmen's Bureau after the war, Howard was a weak administrator, unable to prevent many abuses, but he succeeded in providing greatly needed food and medical and employment aid to millions of people. He was also instrumental in founding Howard University (named for him) and was its third president (1869-74). He later served as superintendent (1880-82) of West Point and founded the Lincoln Memorial University (1895) in Harrogate, Tennessee.