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Nov. 8, 1830 - Oct. 26, 1909
Oliver Otis Howard was born in Leeds, Maine, on 8th November, 1830. Educated
at Bowdoin College he graduated from the U.S. Military Academy, West Point
in 1855. After two years in the army he returned to the military academy to
teach mathematics.
On the outbreak of the American Civil War, Howard, an opponent of slavery,
resigned his regular army commission and became colonel of the Third Maine
Volunteers in the Union Army.
Howard fought at the Bull Run (July, 1861) and accompanied George McClellan
on his Peninsular Campaign. During the battle at Fair Oaks (May, 1862), Howard
was badly wounded and had to have his right arm amputated. Howard also took
part the battles at Antietam (September, 1862), Fredericksburg December, 1862),
Chancellorsville (May, 1863) and Gettysburg (May, 1863). Promoted to the rank
of major general, Howard commanded the Army of Tennessee under William T. Sherman
during his Atlanta Campaign in 1864.
After the war President Andrew Jackson appointed Howard as commissioner
of the Freedman’s Bureau. His first task was to provide food and medical
facilities for former slaves. In 1867, with the support of Radical Republicans
in Congress, helped establish Howard University and for five years served
as its president (1869-74).
Howard returned to military service and fought in the Indian Wars before
serving as superintendent at West Point (1880-82). After leaving the army
he continued his campaign to improve the quality of African American education
in the Deep South and founded the Lincoln Memorial University, in Harrogate,
Tennessee (1895).
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Secretary American Peace Socity
1834 - 1891
Rowland Bailey Howard graduated from Bowdoin College and began to study law
in Troy, New York. He gave up the study of law shortly after for the calling
of the ministry. The time he spent with his older brother Oliver Otis Howard
during the Civil War no doubt had bearing on this choice. After practicing
in several churches, he accepted a call to be Secretary of the American Peace
Society.
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Aug. 28, 1838 - Jan. 27, 1908
Charles Henry Howard graduated from Bowdoin College and attended Bangor Theological
Seminary. Charles Howard served on his brother Oliver’s staff during the Civil
War and became a brevet Brigadier General in his own right. He served as an
assistant Commissioner of the Freedman’s Bureau. Following his service in
the Freedman’s Bureau, he settled in Illinois, worked for the American Missionary
Association, became editor of several newspapers and assisted his brother in
founding many colleges and the settling of the Native Americans in the West.
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