Great Commanders: General Taylor
New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1892. Hardcover. 386 pages. Illustrations. Index. Bookplate inside front board. Stain on spine and some wear along top and bottom edges of boards and spine. 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 the Battle of Fair Oaks/Seven Pines in June 1862, an action which later earned him the Medal of Honor. He later became an 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's Bureau was primarily responsible for the legal affairs of the freedmen. 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, freedmen joined Republican coalitions and won at the ballot boxes 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. More