Page:Men of Mark in America vol 2.djvu/98

68 Ground, Peachtree Creek, Ezra Church, Jonesboro, and Lovejoy Station. By order of President Lincoln he was placed in command of the Army of the Tennessee, after the battle of Atlanta where McPherson was killed. For his brave action at Ezra Church, which he fought independently, he was brevetted major-general in the regular army, March 13, 1865.

In Sherman's march to the Sea, Howard commanded the right wing. He moved successfully on the southern route toward Savannah, fought the battle of Griswoldville and sent his scouts down the Ogeechee river, who were the first to communicate with the navy. He chose and sent the division of Hazen which captured Fort McAllister. After the surrender of Savannah, Georgia, he moved his army by water to Beaufort Island, South Carolina, and then on the mainland crossed the Saluda and Broad rivers to Columbia. On the surrender of Columbia and Charleston, and the forts along the coast, Howard's wing crossed the Carolinas and joined Slocum (commanding the left wing) sharing the battle of Bentonville, March 19, 20, and 21, 1865. Shortly after Johnston's surrender, Howard's command marched from twenty to twenty-five miles a day, from Raleigh to Washington via Richmond. As a result of these brilliant campaigns, he was made a brigadier-general in the regular army to date from December 21, 1864.

In accordance with a request left by President Lincoln, General Howard was assigned to duty in the war department, May 12, 1865, as commissioner of the "Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands." In this work he showed himself a friend of humanity, and in no respect less devoted than during the nation's four years' struggle in war. Political sagacity, scrupulous oversight of subordinates, breadth of view, tact and patience were all needed for a work which had no precedent in history, and for the direction of which he could receive no instructions. The work of this bureau, setting a recently freed race upon the road to self-support and citizenship has been recognized as one of the greatest achievements of our government. He won confidence by his adjustment of questions arising between land-owners and freedmen. He arranged a system of contracts by which a new basis of industry enabled the old masters to deal with former slaves and free laborers. He was among the first to provide for the education of the freedmen. Here the Christian benefactor rose superior to the soldier. Eventually the work of this