author
O. O. (Oliver Otis) Howard
1830–1909
A Union general, reformer, and memoirist, he lived a life shaped by war, faith, and public service. Best remembered for leading the Freedmen’s Bureau after the Civil War, he also helped found the university that still bears his name.
1 Audiobook
Campfire and battlefield : an illustrated history of the campaigns and conflicts of the great Civil War
by Rossiter Johnson, Selden Connor, John Brown Gordon, Henry W. B. (Henry Ward Beecher) Howard, O. O. (Oliver Otis) Howard, John Tyler Morgan, John Clark Ridpath
About the author
Graduating from West Point in 1854, he began his career as a U.S. Army officer and rose to prominence during the Civil War. He lost his right arm at the Battle of Fair Oaks in 1862, yet returned to the field and went on to hold major commands in both the eastern and western theaters of the war.
After the conflict, he became commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau, the federal agency created to assist formerly enslaved people and war refugees during Reconstruction. In that role he was closely connected with the founding of Howard University in Washington, D.C., which was named for him.
He later continued his Army career in the American West and also wrote extensively about his experiences, leaving behind memoirs and other historical works. Remembered as a deeply religious and often idealistic figure, he remains a complex presence in American history: a Civil War general, a Reconstruction administrator, and an author who wrote from firsthand experience of a transforming nation.