This text is part of:
Table of Contents:
Chapter
47
: freedmen's aid societies and an act of congress creating a Bureau of refugees, freedmen and abandoned lands
Chapter
55
:
first
appropriation by congress for the bureau; the reconstruction Act,
March
2
,
1867
; increase of educational work
Chapter
60
: opposition to Bureau and reconstruction work became personal; the
Congregational Church of
Washington
Chapter
62
: life in
Washington, D. C.
,
1866
to
1874
; assigned to duty in regular army as commander,
Department of the Columbia
Chapter
63
: in the
Northwest
, among the
Indians
; trip to
Alaska
; life in
Portland, Ore.
;
1874
to
1881
Chapter
64
: superintendent of the
United States military Academy
; commanding
Department of the Platte
,
Omaha, Neb.
Chapter
68
:
French
army maneuvers,
1884
; promotion to
Major General
,
United States army
,
San Francisco
1886
-
88
[546] The journey was quickly made and on April 17th I issued an order assuming command according to my instructions. At first I made my military headquarters, as my predecessor had done, at the Presidio; but I took my family to reside in a charming spot about halfway between the Presidio and the Oakland landing in San Francisco. There was here a large residence which General McDowell had remodeled, the very place where Mrs. Howard and I had been entertained by the McDowells some years before. Near it was an army post of two companies commanded by Major John A. Darling. The post was officially called Fort Mason, but habitually by civilians Black Point. One aid-de-camp occupied a pretty cottage at the post. The grounds of our main house were very charming-the trees of the southern and tropical growth, the hedges all around of geranium, larger than I had ever seen before, and seventy-five varieties of roses beautified a square. After passing through a high gateway, and by the watchful sentinel, we were within a veritable paradise. Taken in connection with the climate, at all times genial, our residence as a family in San Francisco will never be forgotten. Soon after our arrival here, we received the happy news that our third son, Chancey, whom we had left in Omaha, had married Miss Alice G. Rustin of that city. We had named him Chancey as he was born on the second day of the battle of Chancellorsville. He has for some years been a Special Examiner of Pensions for the Government. His happy household-a wife, three sons and a daughter-constantly remind me of our own earlier family.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.