Howard Brothers

Major General Oliver Otis Howard

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 Johnson appointed Howard as commissioner of the Freedmen’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).

Brigadier General Charles Henry Howard

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.

Rev. Rowland Bailey Howard

Secretary American Peace Society

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.