Maine Atlas, the Office of the Maine Secretary of State
A vintage Civil War era sepia photograph of seven Union military officers posing in uniform. Three generals are seated in the center while four stand behind and around them. Handwritten text along the left border reads "Sherman & his Generals."

Oliver Otis Howard

Major General Oliver Otis Howard is standing at left. Photo: Library of Congress.

With the outbreak of the Civil War in early 1861, Oliver Otis Howard became the colonel of the Third Maine Regiment and rose to the rank of general by the end of the conflict. Born in Leeds in 1830, Howard attended Bowdoin College before enrolling at West Point Military Academy, where his abolitionist views alienated him from many of his classmates.

After the Union victory in 1865, General Howard was appointed commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau, whose primary goal was to ensure that African Americans had access to land at education. They also aimed to provide basic necessities, such as food and clothing. This was a challenging task in the South, where many white individuals resented the U.S. military's presence. Legislatures in former Confederate states enacted a series of oppressive laws, known as the Black Codes, to hinder the political and social advancement of African Americans. Freedmen's Bureau workers and newly freed people often faced threats of racial violence.

The Freedmen's Bureau played a vital role in protecting black civil rights during a crucial political period. The Bureau's agents assisted in renegotiating labor contracts and, following the passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments, worked to enfranchise African Americans. As a result of the Bureau's schools, black literacy dramatically increased. However, in 1872 Congress shut down the Bureau due to the resurgence of Southern political power.

In 1867, General Howard helped found Howard University in Washington, D.C. The university, which included schools of law, theology, and medicine, did not exclude anyone based on race. He served as the university's president from 1869 to 1873.

Following his tenure at the university, General Howard represented the U.S. Army in Native American affairs. In 1872, he traveled to Arizona to negotiate a treaty with Cochise, the leader of the Chiricahua Apache. Howard successfully stopped the violence between Indigenous communities and white settlers. He then left his presidential position to take command of the Department of the Columbia in Oregon, where he oversaw the violent removal of the Nez Perce people from a small reservation in Idaho. In 1904, Howard retired from the army as a major general at the age of sixty-four, dying in 1909.

 

American Battlefield Trust Biographies
A sepia-toned engraved portrait of a young Union military officer with a prominent beard and dark hair parted to the side, wearing a double-breasted uniform with shoulder straps.
General Oliver Otis Howard, ca. 1863. Photo: Maine Historical Society.
A portrait of a bearded Civil War officer in uniform, presented as a vintage carte de visite with a thin double border framing the photograph.
Major General Oliver Otis Howard, 3rd Maine Infantry Regiment and U.S. Volunteers Infantry Regiment in uniform. Photo: Library of Congress.
A historic black and white portrait of a bearded Union officer in uniform with stars on his shoulder straps. The image is a glass plate negative showing cracks across the center and dark emulsion missing along the top border.
Gen. O.O. Howard between 1860 and 1865. Photo: Library of Congress.
A vintage illustrated card featuring a portrait of General O.O. Howard in a blue military uniform with gold buttons on the left. The right side and bottom include decorative panels with text reading "Honest Long Cut Is Tobacco for Smoking and Chewing," alongside an eagle perched on an American shield next to a cannon.
A Short History: General Oliver Otis Howard, from the Histories of Generals series (N114) issued by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Smoking and Chewing Tobacco. 1888. Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art.
A simple hand-drawn sketch in ink on a piece of lined, yellowish paper. The drawing depicts rough, abstract outlines of geographic features or objects with small annotations and symbols scattered across the page.
O.O. Howard sketch of Gettysburg battlefield, 1899. While visiting the battlefield a guest at the Eagle Hotel where Howard was staying asked why the Confederate army did not succeed in its attack; Howard explained in a sketch. Maine Historical Society.
A black and white photograph of an elderly General O.O. Howard with a white beard, seated in profile at a small wooden desk. He is holding a pen over a piece of paper, with text at the bottom reading "Gen. O. O. Howard. Writing. 2."
General OO Howard c. 1908. Photo: Library of Congress.
A grainy, black and white portrait of an elderly General Oliver Otis Howard in full military uniform with a white beard. He is seated at a wooden desk with a stack of books in the foreground and a tall wooden bookcase blurred in the background.
Photograph of General Oliver Otis Howard sitting behind his desk at Governor's Island in 1893 in uniform. Photo: McClure's Magazine, Vol. XXXI, May 1908, p. 43.
A vintage black and white photograph capturing a solemn outdoor funeral procession. A horse-drawn caisson carrying a flag-draped casket moves past a crowd of onlookers standing beneath large, bare trees in front of a brick building.
Gen. Oliver Otis Howard funeral, Vermont, 1909. Soldiers from the 10th U.S. Cavalry, a segregated Black regiment, removed the casket of General. Oliver Otis Howard at First Congregational Church in Burlington on October 29, 1899. Maine Historical Societyl

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