Howard

nied receiving but which Carl Schurz testified
that he personally read to Howard (Battles and
Leaders of the Civil War, III, 1888, pp. 196,
219-20). At Gettysburg he showed a lack of de-
cision and Livermore blames him largely for the
loss of the first day's battle. By Halstead he is
accused of insubordination (Ibid., 285), but he
personally rallied the I Corps in the cemetery on
the first day and, though there is considerable
doubt as to whether he deserves the credit, he re-
ceived the Thanks of Congress for the selection
of that important position.

In September 1863 he was ordered to Tennes-
see, where he participated in the battles around
Chattanooga, and in 1864 he was placed in com-
mand of the IV Corps. He took an active part
in the Atlanta campaign and in July was given
command of the Army and Department of the
Tennessee. Thenceforward he commanded the
right wing of Sherman's army. His kindly soul
was harrowed by the horrors of the march to the
sea and northward, and while he justified the
harsh treatment of the inhabitants, he opposed
and rigorously punished looting and violence.

On May 12,1865, President Johnson appoint-
ed him commissioner of the newly established
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned
Lands, for which position he had been selected
by Lincoln. So far as good intentions, humani-
tarian passion, and religious enthusiasm were
concerned a better choice could not have been
made, and the Bureau rendered valuable service
in relieving destitution and suffering in its early
days; as an executive, however, Howard left
much to be desired. The rank and file of lower
Bureau officials were unfit or unworthy, and pres-
ently the whole service was so honeycombed with
fraud, corruption, and inefficiency, so busy with
politics looking to negro enfranchisement, and so
bent on bringing about the political separation
of the negroes and the native whites that its
usefulness was hopelessly impaired (House Ex-
ecutive Document 1203 39 Cong,, i Sess.). How-
ard, always inclined to believe the best of any one
associated with him, persistently refused to give
credence to any charges of misconduct against
Bureau officials, declaring all of them based upon
race prejudice or political partisanship, and ac-
cepted all the reports of his subordinates at their
face value, regardless of their patent falsity
(Howard, Autobiography, ch. LX; Daily North
Carolina Standard, Raleigh, May 23, 1866). In
his enthusiasm for the negro he lost his poise. A
climax to numerous absurdities into which sen-
timentality betrayed him was his favorable com-
ment pE tjie ijotprious South Carolina legislature

Howard
of 1868 (Daily Morning Chronicle, Washington,
D. C, Oct. i, 1868).
From time to time charges were made against
Howard, and in 1870 some of these were investi-
gated by a committee of Congress which exon-
erated him by a strict party vote (House Report
121, 41 Cong., 2 Sess.). Later Secretary Bel-
knap preferred charges and Howard at last asked
for a court of inquiry. Objecting to that appoint-
ed by Belknap, whom he thought hostile to ne-
groes, he was able to persuade Congress to
create, by special act, a court which Grant ap-
pointed. The charges were failure to establish
and enforce a proper system of payments to col-
ored soldiers, responsibility for some minor de-
falcations of officers, misapplication of public
funds, and the transfer of confused and incom-
plete records. From all of these he was com-
pletely exonerated (Proceedings, Findings, and
Opinions of the Court of Inquiry , . . in the
Case of Brigadier-General Oliver 0. Howard,
1874).
Dishonest Howard undoubtedly was not, but
he had too many irons in the fire. He was busy
organizing a Congregational church in Wash-
ington and raising funds for it. Seeking to bring
, in colored members, he precipitated a quarrel
which disrupted the congregation. Instrumen-
tal in founding Howard University, he became
its president in 1869 and gave much of his time
to it until 1874 when he resigned. He was a di-
rector of the Freedmen's Bank and his name was
influential in securing the patronage of the ne-
groes for the venture, which resulted in financial
disaster to many of them.
In 1872 Grant sent him as a peace commission-
er to the Apache Indians under Cochise, with
whom he concluded a treaty. In 1874 he was
placed in command of the Department of the Co-
lumbia. In 1877 he commanded an expedition
against the Nez Perce Indians and in 1878 one
against the Bannocks and Piutes. In 1880 he
became superintendent at West Point and two
years later took command of the Department of
the Platte. In 1884 he spent some months in
Europe, attending the meetings of the Interna-
tional Y. M. C. A. in Berlin and representing the
United States at the French army maneuvers,
upon which occasion he was made a chevalier of
the Legion of Honor. Promoted major-general
in 1886, he was placed in command of the Di-
vision of the East, in which post he remained
until his retirement in 1894.
After his retirement Howard lived at Burling-
ton, Vt., until his death, continuing his writings
and engaging in religious and educational ac-
tivities. He was prominent in raising funds fpr