Frohne's Historic Military
Authentic history you can trust!Click on image for a better view:
$195.00 plus shipping
Howard, Oliver 0., major-general, was born at Leeds,
Kennebec county, Me., Nov. 8, 1830. Having finished
preparation at Monmouth and Yarmouth, at the age of sixteen he
entered Bowdoin college, in which he was graduated in 1850,
with a fair standing. An opportunity was then afforded him to
enter the United States military academy, and he became a
cadet in that institution, graduating in 1854. He stood
fourth in his class, and by his own request was assigned to
the ordnance department with the brevet rank of second
lieutenant. His first service was at Watervliet, N. Y., and
Kennebec arsenal, Me., and he next served in Florida, being
chief ordnance officer during Gen. Harney's campaign against
the Indians. The following year he was promoted first
lieutenant, and was assigned to duty as acting professor of
mathematics at West Point, which position he continued to hold
until the breaking out of the Civil war. In 1861 Lieut.
Howard volunteered his services to the governor of his native
state, and was finally, by a regimental election, made colonel
of the 3rd regiment, Me. volunteers. His commission bore the
date of May 28, and by June 1, he was on his way to the
national capital with a full regiment. Col. Howard commanded
the 3rd brigade of the 3rd division during the battle of Bull
Run, July 21, and for his conduct during this campaign was
created brigadier-general of volunteers on Sept. 3. He bore a
prominent part in the movement toward the Rappahannock in the
spring of 1862, and was then transferred to the Peninsula,
where he participated in the advance against Richmond. He was
twice wounded in the right arm at the battle of Fair Oaks on
May 31, while leading his brigade in a charge against the
enemy, and he lost that arm by amputation. In two months and
twenty days after Fair Oaks Gen. Howard returned to his corps,
and was in the Pope campaign in Virginia participating in the
second battle of Bull Run, and during the retreat from
Centerville to Washington, he commanded the rear guard of the
army, which was under fire almost continuously. In the
Maryland campaign he commanded a brigade until Antietam, where
Gen. Sedgwick was wounded, when he took charge of that
General's division, which he also commanded at Fredericksburg.
In November he was promoted to the rank of major-general of
volunteers, and in the following spring he succeeded Gen.
Sigel as commander of the 11th army corps which he led during
the sanguinary battles at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. In
Oct., 1863, Gen. Howard's corps was engaged in the fighting in
Lookout valley, and he received Gen. Thomas, commendation in
further orders the following month, when he fought under Grant
in the battle of Chattanooga, gaining distinction. During
Sherman's Atlanta campaign in the spring of 1864, Gen. Howard
was in command of the new 4th corps, which formed a part of
the army of the Cumberland, seeing severest service for 100
days. When Gen. McPherson fell before Atlanta, Gen. Howard
succeeded him as commander of the Army and Department of the
Tennessee, and throughout the whole of the grand march through
Georgia his corps formed the right of Sherman's army. For his
part in this campaign he was appointed brigadier-general in
the regular army. He commanded the same wing during the
movement through the Carolinas, and assisted in the operations
by virtue of which Johnston's army was forced to surrender in
1865. For this portion of the campaign Gen. Howard was
brevetted major-general of the regular army. On May 12, 1865,
he was assigned to duty in the war department in the bureau of
refugees, freedmen, and abandoned lands, in which position he
remained until July, 1874, when he was assigned to the command
of the Department of the Columbia. In 1877, he commanded a
successful expedition against the Nez Perces Indians, his
infantry marching over 1,400 miles, and the following year
another, nearly as extended, against the Bannocks and Piutes.
In 1881-82 Gen. Howard was superintendent of the United States
military academy, and from 1882-86 he commanded the Department
of the Platte at Omaha, Neb. In 1886 he was commissioned
major-general and placed in command of the division of the
Pacific, and after the death of Gen. Sheridan, and the
assignment of Maj.-Gen. Schofield to command the U. S. army,
Gen. Howard was appointed to the command of the division of
the Atlantic, with headquarters at Governor's island in the
harbor of New York. He was placed upon the retired list, Nov.
8, 1894.
Source: The Union Army, vol. 8
