This is a nice, crisp, clean bust view of Howard as a Major General. Bottom of mount has a light period pencil inscription that reads “O. O. HOWARD.”

Reverse is blank except for a modern pencil inscription that reads “O. O. HOWARD / ARMY OF THE TENN.”

Oliver Otis Howard was born in Leeds, Maine on November 8, 1830. He attended West Point and graduated fourth in a class of forty-six in 1854. His pre-war activities consisted of service at the Watervliet Arsenal near Troy, New York and at the Kennebec Arsenal in Augusta, Maine. In 1857 he was transferred to Florida for service in the Seminole War and in July of 1857 Howard was promoted to 1st Lieutenant and sent to West Point as an instructor of mathematics.

On the outbreak of the Civil War, Howard was appointed Colonel of the 3rd Maine Infantry and temporarily commanded a brigade at 1st Bull Run. Howard was promoted to Brigadier General on September 3, 1861 and was given the command of a brigade.

As a brigade commander in the Army of the Potomac, Howard lost his right arm while leading his men against Confederate forces at Fair Oaks in June 1862, an action which later earned him the Medal of Honor. Howard was back with the Army in time for the battle of Antietam where he commanded a division. In November Howard was made a Major General and assumed command of the 11th Corps in April of 1863.  As a corps commander, he suffered two humiliating defeats at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg in May and July 1863, but recovered from the setbacks as a successful corps and later army commander in the Western Theater.

Known as the "Christian general" because he tried to base his policy decisions on his deep religious piety, he was given charge of the Freedmen's Bureau in mid-1865, with the mission of integrating the freed slaves into Southern society and politics during the second phase of the Reconstruction Era. From 1867-1873 he founded Howard University in Washington and served as its first president.

After 1874, Howard commanded troops in the West, conducting a famous campaign against the Nez Perce tribe. His leadership against the Apaches in 1872, against the Nez Perce in 1877, the Bannocks and Paiutes in 1878, and against the Sheepeaters in 1879 all add up to a lengthy record.

Subsequently, Howard was superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1881–82. He served as commander of the Department of the Platte from 1882 to 1886 and the Military Division of the Pacific from 1886 to 1888. From 1888, his final command was of the Department of the East at Fort Columbus on Governors Island in New York Harbor, encompassing the states east of the Mississippi River. He retired from the United States Army in 1894 with the rank of Major General.

Howard died in Burlington, Vermont on October 26, 1909 and is buried there in Lakeview Cemetery.    [ad]

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