Howard, Oliver O

Howard, Oliver O(tis)

Oliver O. Howard

(credit: Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)

(born Nov. 8, 1830, Leeds, Maine, U.S.—died Oct. 26, 1909, Burlington, Vt.) U.S. Army officer. He graduated from West Point and served in the American Civil War as a major general of Maine volunteers, fighting at Bull Run, Antietam, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. He commanded the Army of the Tennessee (1864) and marched with William T. Sherman through Georgia. During Reconstruction he was named commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau. He helped found Howard University (1867), which was named in his honour, and served as its president (1869–74). He resigned to return to military service, fighting against the Indians (1877) and later serving as superintendent at West Point (1880–82).