USA > New Mexico > Men of our day; or, biographical sketches of patriots, orators, statemen, generals, reformers, financiers and merchants, now on the stage of action > Part 15
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During the succeeding winter he held the command of the second division of the second corps; and, in April, 1863, was confirmed as major-general of volunteers (his commission dating from the 29th of the preceding November), and was transferred to the command of the eleventh corps, thereby re- lieving General Sigel. His new command was composed of German troops, many of whom could not even speak the English language and all enthusiastically devoted to their former commander, who, for some inscrutable governmenta1 reason, had so suddenly been taken away from them. With these men, good and true soldiers, yet demoralized to a certain degree by the change of command, and before time had been afforded to him for re-organiz ng them or becoming better known to them, General Howard was fated to meet the first onset of the rebel attack at Chancellorsville. Under the unexpected and crushing blow, and despite the heroic endeavors of Howard himself, they broke and ran, causing a panic which had well nigh proved the irretrievable ruin of the whole Union army.
The eleventh and its commander keenly felt the dishonor of this day-but the noble-hearted and patient Lincoln's confi- dence in the subject of our sketch was unshaken, and when a change of commanders was urged, he simply replied, " Howard will bring it up to the work, only give him time." And splendidly did Howard and his men redeem their credit upon the battle field of Gettysburg, on the first, second, and third of July, 1863. It was to his happy forethought, on the first day
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of that battle, in seizing Cemetery Hill, that we may in a great measure, attribute the favorable results of the fighting on the two succeeding days. It " was one of those divine inspirations on which destinies turn," giving him a stronghold of defence and shelter, when, as he must have foreseen, and as happened three hours later, he was obliged to retire in the face of an enemy more than double his own number. And, on this hill, the natural centre of the Union lines, the eleventh corps, burn- ing to wipe out the memory of Chancellorsville, met and terri- bly repulsed the brunt of the attack by the rebel General Ewell's division, at sunset of the second day. On the third day of this terrible fight, Howard's corps still held the same position, grimly watching the sublime panorama of battle which unrolled before them. "I have seen many men in action," wrote an eye-witness, " but never one so imperturba- bly cool as this general of the eleventh corps. I watched him closely as a minie whizzed overhead. I dodged, of course. I never expect to get over that habit. But I am confident that he did not move a muscle by the fraction of a hair's breadth." At last, however, came the furious final charge of the desper- ate veterans of Lee's army, recklessly bent on obtaining posses- sion of Cemetery Hill. Two hundred and fifty cannon concen- trated their unintermitted and terrific fire upon the Union centre (Howard's position) and the left-but Howard simply ordered one after another of his guns to be quiet, as if silenced by the enemy's fire, and his gunners flung themselves flat upon the ground. Suddenly, as the rebel line, in huge semicircular sweep, reached the Emmetsburg road, the Germans of the eleventh corps sprang to their guns, and along the whole front of the Union centre and left, more than four miles long-there rained such a storm of fiery, pitiless hail of death-bolts upon the advancing foe, as swept away not only the last hope of
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the Confederate chieftain, but, almost literally, his best army. Gettysburg was won, and the North was saved. President Lincoln sent to Howard an autograph letter of thanks for his inestimable services, and Congress passed a vote of similar import. General Hancock having been severely wounded in this battle, the command of his corps (the second) was given to Howard.
In the fall of 1863, after the battle of Chickamauga, Generals Howard and Hooker, with their corps, were sent to reinforce Rosecrans, in Tennessee, and at Chattanooga came under the command of General Grant, who had then recently assumed the leadership of the Military Division of the Mississippi. Here it was, also, that Howard became acquainted with General Sherman, and laid the foundation of an intimacy which increased until the close of the war. Together they led their respective corps in the assault upon Fort Buckner, on the second day of the battle for the possession of Mission Ridge (November 25, 1863), and it was Howard's cavalry which contributed largely to the more complete discomfiture of the routed rebels, by the destruction of the Dalton and Cleveland railroad. In the long and severe ' march of Sherman, to the relief of General Burnside, at Knox- ville, in December, 1863, General Howard bore a conspicuous part, winning the highest commendation for fidelity and intelli- gence from Sherman, who says, in his official report: " In Gen- eral Howard throughout, I found a polished and Christian gentleman, exhibiting the highest and most chivalrous traits of the soldier." During the whole of General Sherman's march to Atlanta (May to August, 1864), General Howard and his men did splendid service. During the siege of that place, the brave and beloved General McPherson was killed on the 21st of July, and his command, that of the Army of the Tennessee, was given, by the President, at General Sherman's request, to
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Major-General Howard. In the opening movement (on the 29th of August) of General Sherman's feint towards raising the siege of Atlanta, General Howard's column was impetuously attacked by Lee and Hardee's rebel force, and repulsed them with terrible slaughter; and again, at Jonesboro, on the 31st of August, he dealt to Hood's army the last crushing blow, which drove him routed from Atlanta, thenceforth open to the Union troops.
In Sherman's " March to the Sea," from Atlanta to Savannah, Major-General Howard led the right wing, marching down the Macon road, destroying the railroad, and scattering the rebel cavalry-and passing through Jackson, Monticello, and Hills- boro, to Milledgeville, the capital of the State, where he was joined by the left wing of the army, under General Slocum. From Millen, the united army moved down on either bank of the Ogeechee river, and Howard's column, by the 8th of Decem- ber, had reached and seized the Gulf railroad, within twenty miles of Savannah. On the night of the 9th, Howard commu- nicated, by scouts, with a Union gunboat lying two miles below Fort McAllister-which shortly after fell into the hands of the Union troops-and Generals Sherman and Howard went down to the fleet in a small boat, where they met Admiral Dahlgren. Their great work was done, and Savannah was a splendid Christ- mas gift to the President, and to the nation." Early in February
A story is told of this boat voyage, which illustrates, to some extent, the characters of both General Sherman and General Howard. On finding the fort carried, and his army again in communication with the Union army and navy, General Sherman was much elated and jubilant, and soon after they embarked, he said : "I feel good; I want to sing or shout, but my musical education was neglected. Boys" (to the staff officers in the boat), "can't you sing something?" The "boys" seemed at a loss. " Howard," said the general, "I know you can sing, for I have heard you." " But, general," replied Howard, "I can't sing any thing but hymn
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commenced the march through the Carolinas, in which Howard again led the right wing, moving towards Beaufort, and menac- ing Charleston-and finally entering Columbia, the capital of the Palmetto State. Then pressing into North Carolina, they met and whipped Johnston's rebel army at Averysboro, on the 20th of March, 1865; and while on the march for Raleigh, on the 12th of April, were delighted by the glad news of Lee's surrender.
Congress, at the close of the march of Sherman's army to the sea, in December 1861, promoted General Howard to the rank of brigadier-general in the regular army, his commission dating from the 21st of December, 1864, and the Thirty-ninth Con- gress, at their first session, conferred on him the brevet rank of major-general in the regular army, dating from March 13, 1865.
When the Thirty-eighth Congress, at the suggestion of the lamented Lincoln, determined upon the organization of a "Bureau of Freedmen, Refugees, and Abandoned Lands," it was felt almost instinctively that General Howard was the man to be at the head of it, and no nomination made by the Secretary of War was more heartily approved than that by which he was named commissioner. Owing to the necessary duties connected with the closing up of his command of the right wing of General Sherman's army, General Howard was unable to take charge of his Bureau until May 12th, 1865. In its organization there were manifold difficulties to be overcome. The act was loosely drawn; many matters were left discretionary with the commis- sioner and his assistants, in which these duties should have been
tunes. I don't know any thing else." "Those will be just as good as any thing else," said the commanding general ; "sing them." And so, as they ran down to the squadron, Howard made the air vocal with "Shining Shore," " Homeward Bound," and " Rock of Ages;" the staff officers joining in, and Sherman occasionally trying a stave or two-though it was evident, as ne said, that his musical education had been neglected.
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defined; and their authority in many particulars was insufficient to enforce measures which were absolutely necessary ; still, the affairs of the Bureau were managed with a discretion, an integ- rity and a conscientious regard for right in the conflicting inter- ests of the freedinan and his former master, which won for the commissioner and his subordinates the esteem and respect of the intelligent and loyal of all classes.
When Mr. Johnson began to drift back to his old affinities with the rebels, and to sympathize with those whom he had at first so loudly proclaimed must be severely punished, the Freed- men's Bureau, and its upright and faithful commissioner, became objects of his utter aversion. He recommended that the Bureau should not be suffered to exist beyond the time specified in the first organic act, viz., two years; and when a new Freedmen's Bureau bill passed both houses of Congress, he vetoed it, attempting in a long argument to show the needlessness of any such Bureau of the Government. The bill was not passed over his veto, but later in the session a better bill, re-organizing it in some particulars, but retaining its substantial features and con- templating the retention of General Howard as commissioner, was passed by a strong vote, and when Mr. Johnson vetoed it, was passed again by the constitutional majority of two-thirds. Mr. Johnson then gave out that he had determined upon the re- moval of General Howard from the commissionership, but as the Tenure of Office act clearly prohibited this, he has been obliged to allow him to remain, but has done what he could to hinder him from accomplishing what he desired. The President has par- doned, whenever application has been made, and sometimes even without application, the most violent rebels, especially if their lands had been confiscated and were inuring to the bene- fit of the Freedmen's Bureau, and has invariably ruled that his pardon entitled them to the restoration of all their lands unless
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these had been sold for the non-payment of the direct revenue tax. This action of the President has in many instances seri- ously crippled the usefulness of the Freedmen's Bureau, taking from it a source of legitimate revenue and often requiring the relinquishment of lands occupied by colonies of freedmen, or for schools or churches for their intellectual or religious in- struction ; but, during the whole period, General Howard has maintained a discreet and dignified course. He has done all that lay in his power to promote both common and higher education among the people of color, co-operating with the voluntary freedmen's associations and commissions in the maintenance of schools, and founding a university for them in the immediate vicinity of Washington, while he has, so far as possible, furthered the efforts of religious bodies for the better education of native colored preachers and teachers.
Literary honors have been profusely showered on the general; Waterville (now Colby) college, Maine, and Shurtleff college, Illinois, both conferred on him the degree of LL.D. in 1865, and the Gettysburg Seminary did the same in 1866.
Major-General Howard has proved himself a true man under all circumstances. In his military career, he was always calm, brave to the verge of rashness, unconscious of fear, and at all times capable of making the best dispositions possible of his troops; a good disciplinarian, but much beloved by his men, strictly conscientious and commending his avowed religious principles, rather by a pure, holy, and consistent life, than by any ostentatious displays of his piety.# In his administrative
* General Sherman once said of him ; " I believe Howard is a real Chris- tian. My wife is very strict in her religious observances" (Mrs. Sherman is a Roman Catholic), " and that is all very well, but Howard is different. He don't make any parade of his religion, but he has something about him, which I haven't, but which I wish I had."
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position, he has manifested rare ability, in the midst of great difficulties ; has avoided giving offence when it seemed almost impossible to do so; yet he has never failed to do what he had the power to do for the poor and helpless, or to protect their rights, so far as his authority extended. There is, we hope, a brilliant and useful future yet before this young and capable officer.
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SALMON PORTLAND CHASE.
HIS distinguished statesman, jurist and financier-whose somewhat peculiar baptismal names were conferred upon him in memory of a deceased uncle Salmon, a resident of the town of Portland, Maine-was born at Cornish, New Hampshire, on the 13th of January, 1808. He traces his descent from Aquila Chase, a native of Cornwall, England, who was born in 1618, and, while quite young, came to America and settled at Newburyport, Massachusetts. Dudley Chase, the grandfather of Secretary Chase, and fourth in descent from Aquila, procured a grant of land on the Connecticut river, north of Charleston, (or, as it was then called, Fort No. 4,) upon which he settled, naming the township Cornish, in honor of the original home of his English ancestry. His children became notable persons in that region ; one of them, Philander, being the Epis- copal Bishop of Ohio, and the founder of Kenyon College; and another, D. P. Chase, became Chief Justice of Vermont. Another brother, Ithaman Chase, the father of the subject of this sketch, was a fine specimen of the old-fashioned New Englander, of im- posing stature, great natural dignity, and an affability of manner which rendered him, in the best sense of the word, a gentleman. Sagacious, honest, energetic, and-Yankee-like-turning his hand to whatever business chance offered, he succeeded, as farmer, merchant, surveyor and manufacturer, in accumulating
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a handsome property. He secured, also, the confidence and good-will of his fellow-citizens, whom he long served in the capacity of a justice of the peace, and whom, for many years, he acceptably represented in the Executive Council of New Hampshire. The close of the " war of 1812 " brought disaster to his fortunes, and necessitated, in 1815, his removal to Keene, New Hampshire, where, two years later, he suddenly died, leav- ing his family with little else than the heritage of an honorable name and a well-spent life. His wife, however, who was of Scotch descent, and possessed much of the energy and thrift characteristic of that race, had inherited from her parents a little property, which still remained intact after the wreck of her husband's fortunes. By a careful husbanding of her resources, therefore, she was enabled to keep her children in comparative comfort, and to give a mother's tender thought and direction to their earlier studies. Young Chase, at the schools of Keene, and afterwards at a boarding school, kept by one of his father's old friends, at Windsor, Vermont, had mastered the elementary parts of knowledge, had got through the Latin Grammar, read a little in Virgil's Bucolics, and had commenced Greek and Euclid, when, in the spring of 1820, his mother received from her brother-in-law, the Bishop of Ohio, an offer to take charge of and educate the lad. The proposition was joyfully accepted, and, before long, Salmon started on his long journey westward, in company with his elder brother Alexander, who had just graduated from college, and was going (in company with Henry R. Schoolcraft, since distinguished as a traveller, ethnologist and writer) to join General Cass's expedition to the Upper Mis sissippi.
At Cleveland the young traveller parted from his brother and friend, and spent nearly a month with a friend of his uncle, while waiting for an opportunity to reach that relative, who
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resided at Worthington, in the interior of the State. While thus delayed, the boy was by no means idle, but employed him- self much of the time in ferrying travellers across the Cuyahoga, upon the eastern bank of which stream the town stood, thereby adding somewhat to his slender funds, and gaining a lesson of industrious self-reliance which was of much use to him in the future. At length, however, an opportunity offered for Salmon's proposed journey. He was placed in charge of two theological students, en route for Worthington, on horseback, and with them -travelling " ride and tie," as was frequently done in the time of the early settlement of the West-he made the long trip through the woods, fording streams, and meeting with many adventures which were full of interest and novelty. Arriving at Worthington, he was received into the family of his uncle, the bishop, a most excellent man, but a rigid disciplinarian, where he fulfilled the menial office of " chore boy " during the intervals of study. In mathematics and the languages he made excellent progress, despite the disadvantages under which he labored, of being so much and arduously occupied with farm duties. In composition he was proficient, and in Greek he so far excelled as to be the Greek orator of the bishop's school at its annual exhibition in the summer of 1821. One of his inti- mate schoolmates says : " Never have I known a purer or more virtuous-minded lad than he was. IIe had an extreme aversion to any thing dishonorable or vicious. He was industrious and attentive to business. Laboring on the farm of his uncle, he missed many recitations, and had but limited chances for study, yet, having a natural fondness for books, he was surpassed by no one of his age in the school. He had little regard for his personal appearance, or, indeed, for any thing external. His mind appeared to be directed to what was right, regardless of the opinions of others." In the fall of 1822, Bishop Chase removed
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to Cincinnati, having accepted the presidency of the college there ; and here a somewhat easier life, in some respects, fell to Salmon's lot. He entered the freshman class of the college, and studying hard, attained the rank of sophomore, when his studies were interrupted by the removal, in August, 1823, of the bishop, who resigned the presidency, in order to visit England, with the purpose of obtaining the necessary funds for a Pro- testant Episcopal Seminary in the West, an effort which finally resulted in the establishment of Kenyon College. Salmon returned to his home in New Hampshire, travelling a large por- tion of the way on foot; and, after a short period of school- teaching, and a few months of close and rapid preparation at the academy in Royalton, Vermont, entered the junior class of Dartmouth College. During his collegiate course, an incident occurred strongly indicative of that innate love of right which has ever been so marked a feature of Mr. Chase's character. An intimate friend and classmate having been arbitrarily accused, and, despite his asseverations of his innocence, condemned to rustication, by the faculty, for a trivial offence committed by other parties, Salmon waited upon the president, protested against the decision of the faculty as unjust, and finding it irre- vocable, declared his intention to leave the college with his friend-and did leave. The faculty sent a messenger after them, who overtook them on the road, with a revocation of their sen- tence; but the inexorable young men did not return until they had spent a pleasant week of visiting among their friends and relatives; and their re-entry into Hanover was a triumph. As one of the foremost third of the senior class, young Chase was admitted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and at his gradua- tion, in 1826, he ranked eighth, delivering an oration on “Lit- erary Curiosity. Going directly to Washington, D. C., he an- nounced, in the columns of the "National Intelligencer," of
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December 23d, 1826, his intention to open a select classical school in that city on the first Monday of the ensuing year ; but for a time fortune seemed to look most discouragingly upon him. Patience and courage, however, had their perfect work; and, finally, he most unexpectedly received the offer of the male department of a well-established classical school, the proprietors of which had determined to give their whole time and attention to the female department. In this school (in a little, one-story frame building on G street,) he commenced teaching, receiving the patronage of many eminent men, among whom were Henry Clay, William Wirt, and Samuel L. Southard, who entrusted their sons to his care. While thus arduously engaged, he occu- pied all his leisure time in studying law under William Wirt, then Attorney-General of the United States ; and upon attaining his majority, in 1829, closed his school, and was admitted to the bar of the District of Columbia in February, 1830.
On the 4th, of March, 1830, he set out for Cincinnati, where he commenced the practice of his profession, with an energy and perseverance which could not fail to secure ultimate success. He formed a partnership with Edward King, Esq., son of the celebrated Rufus King, which however was of short duration; and in 1833, he formed another connection with Mr. Caswell, a lawyer of established reputation, and, while striving to obtain cases, he diligently busied himself with the compilation of the statutes of Ohio, accompanied with copious annotations and prefaced with a historical sketch of the State, the whole forming three large octavo volumes. This valuable compendium-the fruit of a careful use of time which young professional men too often fail to improve-soon superseded all other editions of the statutes, and is now the accepted authority in the courts. While the reading and investigations necessary to the compilation of this work, added largely to his stores of legal knowledge, the admi-
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rable manner in which it was prepared, gave its young author an immediate reputation among the profession, and secured him the notice and respect of the active business community by which he was surrounded. It was the stepping-stone to his fortune. Early in 1834, he was made the solicitor of the United States bank, in Cincinnati, to which was soon added a similar position connected with another of the city banks, and he was soon engaged in the full tide of a large and lucrative commer- cial practice.
In 1837 the partnership of Caswell and Chase was dissolved, and shortly after the latter formed a connection with Mr. Ellis. Mr. Chase now first came distinctly and prominently before the public, in connection with those higher interests with which his name is now so widely associated.
In July, 1836, when the office of the " Philanthropist" news- paper, published by James G. Birney, was attacked and de- spoiled by an anti-slavery mob, Birney's life was saved by the courage of Salmon P. Chase, who, from that time, was foremost among those who breasted the tide of pro-slavery aggressions.
In 1837, as the counsel of a colored fugitive slave woman, claimed under the law of 1793, he made an elaborate argument denying the right of Congress to delegate to State magistrates, powers in such fugitive slave cases-a position since sustained by the Supreme Court of the United States and maintained that the law of 1793 was void, because unwarranted by the Consti- tution.
In passing from the court room after making this brave, but ineffectual defence in this case, he overheard the remark of a prudent citizen, "There is a promising young man who has just ruined himself." Time has proved how erroneous this judgment was, yet it was then the popular verdict. During the same year, Mr. Chase defended James G. Birney, who was tried before the
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