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A.P. Howe
(1818 - 1897)
Home State: Maine
Education: US Military Academy, West Point, NY, Class of 1841;Class Rank: 8/52
Command Billet: Brigade Commander
Branch of Service: Infantry
Before Antietam
He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, 4th United States Artillery on 1 July 1841 and was promoted to First Lieutenant on 18 June 1846. He was Regimental Adjutant from October 1846 to March 1855 and had service in various garrisons, then in the Mexican War (1847-48), where he was honored by brevet to Captain for his actions at Contreras and Churubusco. He was promoted to Captain, USA on 2 March 1855 and was on the Souix Expedition, in "Bloody" Kansas, and at Harpers Ferry (1859). When the war began in 1861 he was at Fort Randall in the Dakota Territory.
He was on the West Virginia Campaign, in the defenses of Washington, DC, then in command of a Brigade of Artillery on the Peninsular Campaign. He was appointed Brigadier General, US Volunteers on 11 June 1862 and took command of the 2nd Brigade, First Division, Fourth Army Corps.
On the Campaign
He commanded his Brigade in Maryland. They arrived at the battlefield at Antietam on 18 September after spending the 17th in Pleasant Valley.
The rest of the War
In November 1862 he was assigned command of the 2nd Division of the Sixth Corps and led them in all of their engagements to March 1864 when he was relieved and assigned to command the artillery depot and Office of the Inspector of Artillery at Washington, DC. He was one of the 9 officers assigned to a commission try the Lincoln Conspirators in 1865. He mustered out of Volunteer service on 15 January 1866. He was honored by brevets to Lieutenant Colonel, Colonel, Brigadier General, and Major General, USA for his war service.
After the War
He continued in Regular Army service, having been promoted to Major of the 4th US Artillery on 11 August 1863. He was a member of the Artillery Board, had duty with the Freedman's Bureau, and commanded posts at Ft. Washington, MD, the Presidio and Alcatraz, CA, Ft. McHenry, MD, and Ft. Adams, RI to 1882, when he retired from the Army. He had been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, 2nd US Artillery on 10 April 1879 and Colonel of the 4th Artillery on 19 April 1882.
References & notes
His service from Heitman,1 Cullum,2 and his memorial in the USMA's Twenty-Eighth Annual Reunion (1897). His Cullum Number is 1066. Personal details from family genealogists. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a photograph at the Library of Congress.
He married Elizabeth Law Mehaffey (1838-1921) in February 1859 and they had 6 children.
More on the Web
His 1891 portrait is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. He is among an illustrious group of Generals buried at Mount Auburn [pdf] Cemetery.
Birth
03/25/1818; Standish, ME
Death
01/25/1897; Forest Hills, MA; burial in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, MA
1 Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Vol. 1, pg. 547 [AotW citation 26121]
2 Cullum, George Washington, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the US Military Academy, 2nd Edition, 3 vols., New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1868-79, Vol. II, pp. 71-73 [AotW citation 26122]