O.O. Howard's West Point dress coat, ca. 1853
Item 5435 info
Maine Historical Society
After graduating from Bowdoin College, Oliver Otis Howard (1830–1909) of Leeds, Maine, attended West Point, during which a twenty four-year-old Howard wore this triple-breasted wool coatee with a standing collar. The chevron insignia signifies the rank of cadet captain.
In 1861, O.O. Howard joined the Union Army. He commanded the 3rd Maine Regiment before his promotion to brigadier general by September that same year. Howard served in several infamous campaigns, including at the Battle of Seven Pines, where he lost his right arm and was awarded the Medal of Honor for his action. Despite the amputation, Howard continued to serve, retiring from the Army in 1894.
General Howard is best remembered as the U.S. Freedman’s Bureau commissioner, and his role in founding Washington D.C.’s Howard University. During Reconstruction, the Freedman’s Bureau supported integrating Black men into postwar society, with Howard University providing educational opportunities for both Black men and women. During his career, General Howard tirelessly advocated for newly freed Black communities, including in Maine, but his legacy is complicated by his role in campaigns against Indigenous peoples during the so-called “Indian Wars,” specifically against the Nez Perce Nation.
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