Homer B. (Homer Baxter) Sprague

Born in Sutton, Massachusetts, in 1829, Homer Baxter Sprague built a life that moved between scholarship, public service, and war. He studied at Yale, worked as a teacher and lawyer, and became known as an educator with a deep interest in literature and language.

When the Civil War began, he served in the 13th Connecticut Infantry and rose from captain to lieutenant colonel. He was wounded in battle and later captured, experiences that would shape some of his best-known writing. His books on the war, including a regimental history and a memoir of Confederate prisons, stand out because they combine historical record with firsthand testimony.

After the war, Sprague returned to education and held major academic posts, including service as president of Mills College and as the second president of the University of North Dakota. He continued writing and lecturing well into later life, leaving behind the record of a man who was at once a soldier, a teacher, and an author determined to preserve what he had seen.