OLIVER OTIS HOWARD
HOWARD, OLIVER OTIS, with the exception of General Schofield, the last, and always one of the most distinguished of the surviving Union generals who successfully commanded large armies during the Civil war, was at eleven years of age striving for an education; at nineteen a college graduate; at twenty-four a graduate of West Point military academy and a lieutenant in the United States army. Later he was leader in twenty-two battles, losing his right arm at Fair Oaks. He was in command of the Union forces on the first day at Gettysburg. In Sherman's brilliant campaigns in the West and to Atlanta, Howard commanded the 4th army corps, and in the march to the Sea he was commander of the right wing—the Army of the Tennessee. His military record throughout shows such intrepid valor, and his work after the war, in adjusting the distressingly difficult relation of ex-master and ex-slave, shows such ardent devotion and goodness of heart, that he is preeminently entitled to the names of patriot, hero and Christian.
He was born in Leeds, Maine, November 8, 1830. When he was nine years old his father, Rowland Baily Howard, died—"a man of executive talent, fond of literature, manly and upright." His widowed mother did all she could to educate him and his two younger, brothers. Oliver Otis worked on the farm, obtaining in this way, as he says, "toughness of fiber." He attended the neighboring academies at Hallo well, Monmouth and Yarmouth, spending his vacations at home on the farm. He entered Bowdoin college, Maine, in 1846 and was graduated from that institution in 1850. To help to pay his expenses at college he taught district schools. Of his studies he said "Greek seemed hard at first, but did me more good than even mathematics, which I always enjoyed." In the fall of 1850 he entered West Point military academy, graduating in 1854 fourth in a class of forty-six and first in mathematics. He was assigned to duty at Watervliet arsenal 1854-55; and at Kennebec arsenal, Maine, 1855-56. As first lieutenant he was chief of ordnance on the staff of General Harney in the Seminole war in Florida, 1857
