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A. Z, Conrad, D.D.
•
Gen. Oliver Otis Howard
An Appreciation by A. Z. Conrad. D.D.
GEN. OLIVER OT}' HOWARD wa one of the master men of
IIi day. Hi Wit an imperial manhood. A boy of nine returned
one v ninO' from a church ocial ervice and astoni hed his
par nt with th tat m nt that he had poken in the meeting.
It was an unheard-of thing for a boy of
hi age in that day. He felt the compul
ion of duty. The boy wa father
f the man. What he did at nine he
did through hi . life, an wered the rolleaU
with promptnes and positivene s.
Another incident: A youth of fifteen
i on hi way to Bowdoin CoUege; he is
invited by hi companions to drink;
he declines; he i told that all great
men drink. Reflecting a moment, he
an wered, "Then I don't want to be
great." gain the boy was father of
the man; he could neither be driven,
coaxed, or sneered away from hi conscience. College finished,
we find him at We t Point Academy, a Bible in one hand and a
word in th other. He exhibited all the heroi m of a oldieI'
in adhering to hi principle during tho e years.
1857 ha.! come; he i now Lieutenant Howard and in Florida.
Then omething happen d. 0 man amount to much until
om thinO' happ n betw n him If and God. great thing
happ n d to Howard; he lifted up the aate of hi oul and invit
din th 'nO' f lory. From that mom nt he was a master
man. He w a courag u onfe or and never 10 t an opportunity
to declar hi aU ian to hi King and Lord. The
di ciplin of the ch 01 had giv n him much of elf-mastery, but
now hi' onque t of elf be am omplete. He laid the foundation
for a gr at ommander in th ab olutene' of hi obedience
to the high rmandat of con ci n'e and th spirit.
1861 has com ; the roll of the drum, the note of the bugle,
found him omfortably 10 ated as in tru ·tor at We t Point; the
blood of the oldieI' was our ing in hi vein; he become
olonel Howard, leading the Third aine Volunteer. The
fir t battle of the war i on; it i the battle of BuU Run. Con'
picuous for hi bravery, he i honored with promotion.
June 1, 186fl, has om ; the awful laughter of Fair Oaks
20
tests the qualities of every soldier and every commander. He is
equal to the emergency. At the very crisis of the battle the
young officer stands out conspicuously as a fearless leader in
awful conflict. The battle emptied one sleeve of hi coat.
Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville follow. Distinguishing
act of valor characterized all his activities. With an
irrepres ible hope and an undaunted courage, beloved by his
own troops, and feared by the enemy, he was the inspiration of
thousands of men. His empty sleeve wa a continuou proclamation
of his heart heroism. The supreme moment of his
military life was at Getty burg when word came to him that
Reynolds was dead and that he himself \Va now the chief officer.
With an almo t upernatural wisdom he ordered the battle, and
through tho e da~'s of purgatorial strife proved himself a master
a a soldier, as a man.
Congress rise to do honor to the noble commander. Lookout
Mountain, Mi ionary Ridge, Atlanta, add to the luster of his
name. With Sherman and Slocum through the Carolinas, he
comes finally to the battle of Bentonville, the last real conflict
of the war. Throughout those awful years of strife not one
stain soiled his escutcheon, and never once wa hi word dis-honorably
lowered. •
Great to command, he was also great to serve, and his service
in peace indeed was not less noteworthy than that in war. As
commissioner of the Bureau of RefuO'ees Freedmen and I:> , ,
Abandoned Lands, he gave his best ervice to his count!'y. The
humanism of Je us found ble ed expression in his life. The
founding of Howard University revealed his spirit of loving
interest in the helpless and dependent.
What made General Howard the imperial'man he was, commanding
the re pect of every cia s throughout America? Why
was it that when he 1'0 e in public as emblages all the people
were wont to tand with bowed heads as though in the presence
of an extraordinary person? Here i the secret of his power:
Hi threefold faith in God, humanity, and l)irnself; hi untiring
zeal, his unwavering conscientiousness, the fixedness of his
principles, his loyalty to his convictions, his humility and his
gentl~nes , his humaneness and his sympathy, his magnanimity
for frien~ an.d foe, and preeminently, first, last, and always, his
fell?wshi~ WIth ~e us Christ. There is nothing like it. It gives
an lIDpena~ quality to ~aracter. He was distinctively a product
of the ChrIst of the BIble. God bless his memory to the ennoblement
of the American youth.
