Mainer played part in reconstruction following Civil War
One of the biggest challenges facing the United States government today is reconstruction in Iraq. After the Civil War, the victorious North faced a similar challenge, and a Union general from a humble background in Leeds, Maine was charged with rebuilding the devastated South.
Hailed as a war hero and a religious icon in the press, Oliver Howard’s appointment was greeted with much optimism. However, as chief of the Freedmen’s Bureau, his task of mending a hostile, war-torn country would not be an easy one.
Howard was born and raised on a farm near Androscoggin Lake, attended high school at Monmouth Academy and college at Bowdoin. From there he left Maine to study and then teach at West Point. He was thirty-one when the Civil War broke out. His first command was the Third Maine, a makeshift brigade of green but hardy backwoods volunteers. Together they fought in the Battle of Bull Run, and Howard’s ability as a leader earned him a promotion to brigadier-general. At Fair Oaks his right arm was shot off by a cannon ball, but the loss of an appendage did not slow our hero down. As the story goes, Howard raised the bloody stump of his arm to urge his men on.
Howard went on to distinguish himself at Gettysburg as well, where Civil War lore includes an image of the one-armed general standing firm on Cemetery Hill, calmly directing the battle, an empty coat sleeve pinned to his shoulder.
Upon his appointment as head of the Freedmen’s Bureau, the Maine press was full of glowing reports. Howard was praised as the ideal choice, not only for his bravery in battle but also for his Christian character. “The strong religious element in his nature especially fits him to deal with the colored race,” reported a political observer in the Farmington Chronicle. An article from the Lancaster Express, reprinted in the Chronicle, reported that “General Howard never partook of food without first invoking God’s blessing upon it; never retired to rest without calling about him his staff officers, and commending them to Divine keeping.”
During Howard’s seven-year reign, the Freedmen’s Bureau made important contributions to the government’s reconstruction efforts, winning both praise and criticism. Many white southerners saw the bureau as a vehicle for the Republican party, and its efforts to register black voters no more than a political ploy. Many of its local officers were charged with corruption, although Howard himself was never the subject of scandal. Historians fault his abilities as an administrator; however, most agree that his efforts to provide educational opportunities to southern blacks were commendable. Howard University was established under his supervision and in his name.
News reporters today comment on “the war after the war” in Iraq. Howard, like contemporary U.S. peacekeepers, found that the most complicated of battles came after the fighting was over.
Luann Yetter has researched and written a history column for the Sun Journal for the past nine years. She teaches writing at the University of Maine at Farmington. Additional research by UMF student David Farady.
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