Autograph letter signed by Oliver Otis Howard (1830-1909). Burlington, North Carolina, 14 December 1904. 1 page, folio, on Lincoln Memorial University letterhead. Matted and framed to 11 3/4 x 14 3/4 in.

Howard was a career US Army officer who lost his right arm while leading his men against Confederate forces at the Battle of Seven Pines (Fair Oaks) in June 1862, an action which later earned him the Medal of Honor.

Howard played a major role in Reconstruction as the commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau from May 1865 until 1874. He proposed far-reaching programs addressing social welfare, education, judicial equity, and medical care. Allied with the Radical Republicans, he often clashed with President Johnson, who called him a "fanatic." Notably, he played prominent roles in founding the historically Black Howard University. In 1896, he was also involved in the founding of Lincoln Memorial University, which was established out of a desire to help the poor people of East Tennessee, the majority of whom remained loyal to the Union during the war. 

Here, he writes on Lincoln Memorial University letterhead, which lists him as the President of the Board and Managing Director, to a man named Albert M. Smith who was evidently seeking signatures and ephemera from the War: "I have no autographs of Generals Grant or Sherman which I feel that I can spare from my files. If you will write to the Hartford Courant, the manager will send you a copy of the facsimile and give you a statement of my command on a separate sheet. Glad you are interested these things."

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs]