biography
| name: |
Howard, Oliver Otis
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1830–1909)
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| biography:
| US soldier, born in Leeds, Maine, USA. He graduated from Bowdoin College and then West Point (1854). Stonewall Jackson's famous flank attack routed Howard's XI Corps at Chancellorsville (May 1863), and his command gave way before Confederate assaults on the first day at Gettysburg two months later. Transferred to the West, he led a wing of General William Sherman's army in the March to the Sea (1864). An officer of strong humanitarian and religious convictions, he headed the Freedman's Bureau (1865–72). He helped found Howard University in Washington, DC, which is named for him, and he served as its first president (1869–74). He took part in the Nez Perce Indian war (1877) and served as superintendent of West Point (1881–82), and after retiring from the army (1894) he was involved in various educational and religious projects. He also wrote on historical and military subjects and published a two-volume autobiography. |
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