HOWARD, Oliver Otis, American gen eral: b. Leeds, Me., 8 Nov. 1830; d. 1909. He was graduated from Bowdoin in 1850, and from West Point in 1854. He was then as signed to the ordnance department of the regu lar army, served in Florida against the Semi noles and was professor of mathematics at West Point 1857-61. At the outbreak of the Civil War he entered the volunteer service as colonel of the 3d Maine regiment. He was in over 20 important battles; in 1861 he was at the battle of Bull Run, and was after ward made brigadier-general of volunteers; in 1862 he served in the Virginia campaign, and at the battle of Fair Oaks lost his right arm. He commanded at the battles of Antietam and Fredericksburg; in 1863 was appointed to the command of the 11th Army corps and led them at the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettys burg. When the 11th corps was united with the 12th he was given the command of the 4th corps of the Army of the Cumberland, but was shortly afterward transferred to the command of the Army of the Tennessee, which was the right wing of Sherman's army on his "march to the sea." In 1864 he was appointed briga dier-general in the regular army, and in 1865 made commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau; 1869-73 he was president of Howard Uni versity (q.v.), established in Washington for
the higher education of the negro. In 1874 he was placed in command of the Department of the Columbia, and there conducted four campaigns against the Indians, including that against the Nez Perces tribe. In 1881 he was superintendent at West Point, and subsequently in command of the Departments of the Platte and of California; in 1886 he was promoted to the rank of major-general and assigned to the Department of the East, where he remained until his retirement in 1894. In 1895 he founded the Lincoln Memorial University, Cumberland Gap, Tenn. He wrote 'Donald's School Days> (1879) ; 'Chief Joseph, or the Nez Perces in Peace and War' (1881) ; 'Gen eral Zachary Taylor' (1892) ;