Oliver O . Howard Oliver Otis Howard ( November 8 , 1830 – October 26 , 1909 ) was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War . 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 . 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 . Howard took charge of labor policy , setting up a system that required free slaves to work on former plantation land under pay scales fixed by the Bureau , on terms negotiated by the Bureau with white land owners . Howard ' s Bureau was primarily responsible for the legal affairs of the freedmen . He attempted to protect the Negros from hostile conditions , but lacked adequate power , and was repeatedly frustrated by President Andrew Johnson . Howard ' s allies , the Radical Republicans , won control of Congress in the 1866 elections and imposed Radical Reconstruction , with the result that freedmen were given the vote . With the help and advice of the Bureau , they joined Republican coalitions along with " carpetbaggers " and " scalawags " to take political control of most of the southern states . Howard was also a leader in promoting higher education for freedmen , most notably in founding of Howard University in Washington and serving as its president 1867 – 73 . After 1874 , Howard commanded troops in the West , conducting a famous campaign against the Nez Perce tribe . Utley ( 1987 ) concludes that 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 an impressive record , although he was outshone by George Custer and Nelson Miles . Early years . Howard was born in Leeds , Maine , the son of Rowland Bailey Howard and Eliza Otis Howard . Rowland , a farmer , died when Oliver was 9 years old . Oliver attended Monmouth Academy in Monmouth , North Yarmouth Academy in Yarmouth , Kents Hill School in Readfield , and graduated from Bowdoin College in 1850 at the age of 19 . He then attended the United States Military Academy , graduating in 1854 , fourth in his class of 46 cadets , as a brevet second lieutenant of ordnance . He served at the Watervliet Arsenal near Troy , New York , and was the temporary commander of the Kennebec Arsenal in Augusta , Maine . In 1855 , he married Elizabeth Anne Waite , with whom he would have seven children . In 1857 he was transferred to Florida for the Seminole Wars . It was in Florida that he experienced a conversion to evangelical Christianity and considered resigning from the Army to become a minister . His religious proclivities would later earn him the nickname " the Christian general . " Howard was promoted first lieutenant in July 1857 , to returned to West Point the following September to become an instructor of mathematics . As the Civil War began with the surrender of Fort Sumter , thoughts of the ministry were put aside and he decided to remain in the service of his country . Civil War . Howard was appointed colonel of the 3rd Maine Infantry regiment and temporarily commanded a brigade at the First Battle of Bull Run . He was promoted to brigadier general effective September 3 , 1861 , and given permanent command of his brigade . He then joined Maj . Gen . George B . McClellan ' s Army of the Potomac for the Peninsula Campaign . On June 1 , 1862 , while commanding a Union brigade in the Fair Oaks , Howard was wounded twice in his right arm , which was subsequently amputated . ( He received the Medal of Honor in 1893 for his heroism at Fair Oaks . ) Brig . Gen . Philip Kearny , who had lost his left arm , visited Howard and joked that they would be able to shop for gloves together . Howard recovered quickly enough to rejoin the army for the Battle of Antietam , in which he rose to division command in the II Corps . He was promoted to major general in November 1862 and assumed command of the XI Corps the following April . In that role , he replaced Maj . Gen . Franz Sigel . Since the corps was composed largely of German immigrants , many of whom spoke no English , the soldiers were resentful of their new leader and openly called for Sigel ' s reinstatement . At the Battle of Chancellorsville , Howard suffered the first of two significant military setbacks , which together led to his occasional nickname , " Uh - Oh Howard " . On May 2 , 1863 , his corps was on the right flank of the Union line , northwest of the crossroads of Chancellorsville . Robert E . Lee and Lt . Gen . Thomas J . " Stonewall " Jackson created an audacious plan in which Jackson ' s entire corps would march secretly around the Union flank and attack it . Howard was warned by Maj . Gen . Joseph Hooker , now commanding the Army of the Potomac , that his flank was " in the air " , not anchored by a natural obstacle , such as a river , and that Confederate forces might be on the move in his direction . Howard failed to heed the warning and Jackson struck before dark , routing the XI Corps and causing a serious disruption to the Union plans . Gettysburg . At the Battle of Gettysburg , the XI Corps , still chastened by its humiliation in May , arrived on the field in the afternoon of July 1 , 1863 . Poor positioning of the defensive line by one of Howard ' s subordinate division commanders , Brig . Gen . Francis C . Barlow , was exploited by the Confederate Corps of Lt . Gen . Richard S . Ewell and once again the XI Corps collapsed , forcing it to retreat through the streets of Gettysburg , leaving many prisoners behind . On Cemetery Hill , south of town , Howard quarreled with Maj . Gen . Winfield S . Hancock about who was in command of the defense . Hancock had been sent by Maj . Gen . George G . Meade with written orders to take command , but Howard insisted that he was the ranking general present . Eventually he relented . Controversy centers on three points : 1 ) Howard ' s choice of Cemetery Hill as the key to defense ; 2 ) the timing of Howard ' s mid - afternoon order to abandon positions north and west of town ; and 3 ) Howard ' s reluctance to recognize that Hancock , his junior , had superseded him . Carpenter ( 1963 ) holds that Howard alone had wisely selected Cemetery Hill , that the order to withdraw was probably a sound one , and that the conflict between Howard and Hancock might have been avoided had Meade himself gotten onto the field . Howard started circulating the story that his corps ' failure had actually been triggered by the collapse of Maj . Gen . Abner Doubleday ' s I Corps to the west , and this was a partial reason for Doubleday ' s removal from command of the corps . However , this excuse was not accepted by history — the reverse was actually true — and the reputation of the XI Corps was ruined . Some argue that Howard should get some credit for the eventual success at Gettysburg because he wisely stationed one of his divisions ( Maj . Gen . Adolph von Steinwehr ) on Cemetery Hill as a reserve and critical backup defensive line . For the remainder of the three - day battle , the corps remained on the defensive around Cemetery Hill , withstanding assaults by Maj . Gen . Jubal Early on July 2 , and participating at the margin of the defense against Pickett ' s Charge on July 3 . Western theater . Howard and XI Corps were transferred to the Western Theater with fellow general Henry Slocum ' s XII Corps to become part of the Army of the Cumberland in Tennessee ; they were commanded , once again , by " Fighting Joe " Hooker . In the Battles for Chattanooga , the corps joined the impulsive assault that captured Missionary Ridge and forced the retreat of Gen . Braxton Bragg . In July 1864 , following the death of Maj . Gen . James B . McPherson , Howard became commander of the Army of the Tennessee , fought in the Atlanta Campaign , and led the right wing of Maj . Gen . William Tecumseh Sherman ' s famous March to the Sea , through Georgia and then the Carolinas . Sherman , having favored Howard over John A . Logan for command of the Army of the Tennessee after McPherson ' s death , asked Howard to allow Logan to lead the army in the May 1865 Grand Review in Washington . Howard agreed when Sherman appealed to him as a Christian gentleman . Postwar career . Freedmen ' s Bureau . From May 1865 to July 1874 , General Howard was commissioner of the Freedmen ' s Bureau ( the Army ' s Bureau of Refugees , Freedmen , and Abandoned Lands ) , where he played a major role in the Reconstruction era , and had charge of integrating freedman ( freed slaves ) into American society . Howard devised far - reaching programs and guidelines including social welfare in the form of rations , schooling , courts , and medical care . Howard often clashed with President Andrew Johnson , who strongly disliked the welfare aspects of the Freedman ' s Bureau , and especially tried to return political power to Southern whites . However , Howard had the support of the Radical Republicans in Congress . When the Radical Republicans gained power in 1867 , they gave blacks the right to vote in the South and set up new elections , which the Republican coalition of freedmen , carpetbaggers , and scalawags won ( except in Virginia ) . The Bureau was very active in helping blacks organize themselves politically , and therefore it became a target of partisan hostility . The limited ideological framework of General Howard and his aides encouraged their attempt at radical reconstruction of southern society without realizing the need for essential legislation . They thought that the elimination of all statutory inequalities , for instance , Black court testimony , was enough to assure protection . Southern states pretended compliance on the point to end the threat of the Freedmen ' s Bureau courts ' system . Military commands . He was placed in command of the Department of the Columbia in 1874 , went west to Washington Territory ' s Fort Vancouver , where he fought in the Indian Wars , particularly against the Nez Perce , with the resultant surrender of Chief Joseph . He was criticized by Chief Joseph as precipitating the war by trying to rush the Nez Perce to a smaller reservation , with no advance notice , no discussion , and no time to prepare . Joseph said , " If General Howard had given me plenty of time to gather up my stock and treated Too - hool - hool - suit as a man should be treated , there would have been no war . " 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 1884 . In 1891 , 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 at that posting in 1894 with the rank of major general . The French government made him a chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1884 . Howard University . General Howard is also remembered for playing a role in founding Howard University , which was incorporated by Congress in 1867 . The school is nonsectarian and is open to both sexes without regard to race . On November 20 , 1866 , ten members , including Howard , of various socially concerned groups of the time met in Washington , D . C . , to discuss plans for a theological seminary to train colored ministers . Interest was sufficient , however , in creating an educational institute for areas other than the ministry . The result was the Howard Normal and Theological Institute for the Education of Preachers and Teachers . On January 8 , 1867 , the Board of Trustees voted to change the name of the institution to Howard University . Howard served as president from 1869 to 1874 . He was quoted in saying " The opposition to Negro education made itself felt everywhere in a combination not to allow the freedmen any room or building in which a school might be taught . In 1865 , 1866 , and 1877 mobs of the baser classes at intervals and in all parts of the South occasionally burned school buildings and churches used as schools , flogged teachers or drove them away , and in a number of instances murdered them . " He also founded Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate , Tennessee , in 1895 , for the education of the " mountain whites . " Death and memorialization . Oliver Howard died in Burlington , Vermont , and is buried there in Lake View Cemetery . A bust of Howard designed by artist James E . Kelly is on display at Howard University . An equestrian statue is on East Cemetery Hill on the Gettysburg Battlefield . A dormitory at Bowdoin College is named for Howard . The Oliver O . Howard Relief Corps of the Grand Army of the Republic provided funds to help destitute former Union soldiers and to support worthy public causes . It contributed money and the design for the State Flag of Utah in 1922 . An Army Reserve Center was named after him in Auburn , Maine , and is still used today by several U . S . Army Reserve units . Howard High School of Technology in Wilmington , Delaware , is named in his honor , as is Howard County , Nebraska and the Howard School of Academics and Technology , in Chattanooga , Tennessee . The General O . O . Howard House , located on Officer ' s Row within the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site was built in 1878 upon General Howard ' s order at a cost of $ 6 , 938 . 20 . Completed in 1879 , the building suffered a fire in 1986 and was left vacant until renovated by the City of Vancouver in 1998 . The building serves as the headquarters of the Fort Vancouver National Trust . In Portland , Oregon , on the 150th Anniversary of Howard ' s acts of valor on June 1 , 1862 , while leading his troops at the Battle of Fair Oaks ; a commemorative wreath was laid by the Oregon Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission at the site of General O . O . Howard ' s former residence in downtown Portland at the corner of SW 10th and Morrison . The month of June 2012 will be dedicated to O . O . Howard with a lecture and programs by the Oregon Civil War Sesquicentennial spotlighting General Howard ' s activities in Portland and at Fort Vancouver , Washington ; and his post war achievements at the Freedmen ' s Bureau , Howard University and Lincoln Memorial University and the Indian Wars . In a New York Times interview given the day after Major General Howard retired from the Army on November 8 , 1894 at the age of 64 , it was reported that he was traveling West to stay at his daughter ' s house in Portland , Oregon where he planned to start writing his memoirs . Selected works . Howard was the author of numerous books after the war , including : He wrote an account of the Civil War ' s Atlanta campaign in the " Century Magazine " for July 1887 . He translated : In popular media . In the 1950 film " Broken Arrow " , Howard is played by Basil Ruysdael opposite James Stewart , who portrays Tom Jeffords . In the 1956 film " The Last Wagon " , he was portrayed by Carl Benton Reid . James Whitmore portrayed General Howard in the 1975 television film , " I Will Fight No More Forever " , about the U . S . Army campaign against the Nez Perce and the surrender of Chief Joseph in 1877 . Medal of Honor citation . Rank and organization : Brigadier General , U . S . Volunteers . Place and date : At Fair Oaks , Va . , June 1 , 1862 . Entered service at : Maine . Born : November 8 , 1830 , Leeds , Maine . Date of issue : March 29 , 1893 . Citation : Led the 61st New York Infantry in a charge in which he was twice severely wounded in the right arm , necessitating amputation .