Edward Ord

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For his son, see Edward Otho Cresap Ord II.
Edward Otho Cresap Ord
Edward Otho Cresap Ord, II, son
Jules Garesche Ord
, son

Edward Otho Cresap Ord (October 18, 1818 – July 22, 1883) was an American engineer and

Indian Wars, and the American Civil War. He commanded an army during the final days of the Civil War, and was instrumental in forcing the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. He also designed Fort Sam Houston. He died in Havana, Cuba of yellow fever
.

Early life and career

Ord was born in Cumberland, Maryland, the son of James and Rebecca Ord. Family tradition made James Ord the illegitimate son of George IV of the United Kingdom and Maria Fitzherbert[1] but, instead, he may have been the son of Ralph Ord, who was baptised at Wapping, Middlesex, in 1757, the son of John Ord, a factor (agent) from Berwick-upon-Tweed.[2] Historian James Munson has concluded that Mrs Fitzherbert had no child by the Prince of Wales,[3] although other historians disagree. For example, Saul David concludes that it is generally accepted that the Prince of Wales and Mrs Fitzherbert had at least one child and that James Ord would be the most likely candidate.[4] Edward Ord was considered a mathematical genius and was appointed to the United States Military Academy by President Andrew Jackson. His roommate at West Point was future general William Tecumseh Sherman. He graduated in 1839 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 3rd U.S. Artillery. He fought in the Second Seminole War in Florida and was promoted to first lieutenant.

Fort Mervine

In January 1847, Ord sailed on the

Presidio of Monterey
.

Edward O. C. Ord and his family

Ord was in

John Augustus Sutter, Jr., assisted Captain William H. Warner of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the survey of Sacramento, California
, helping to produce the map that established the future capital city's extensive downtown street grid. Ord also produced a map of the Gold and Quicksilver district of California dated July 25, 1848.

Later,

Pueblo de Los Angeles looked like at the middle of the 19th century. Lieutenant Ord surveyed the pueblo and his assistant Hutton sketched many scenes of the pueblo and drew the first map from Ord's survey.[5]
The Los Angeles City Archives has the original map produced by Hutton from Ord's survey. Ord was paid $3000 for his work on this survey. La Reina De Los Angeles, published in 1929, states that Ord was offered 160 acres of public land and 10 building sites all in the present downtown business district but accepted the $3000 instead.

Ord was promoted to

Indian Wars, the Spanish–American War and the Philippine–American War. He was also a painter, inventor and poet. The son of Edward Otho Cresap Ord, II and grandson of Edward Ord was James Garesche Ord, who commanded the 28th Infantry Division and was Chairman of the Joint U.S.–Brazil Defense Commission in World War II
.

In 1859, while attending artillery school at

Baltimore
.

Civil War service

Edward Ord

At the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861, Ord was serving as Captain of Battery C, 3rd U.S. Artillery, and also as post commander at the U.S. Army's Fort Vancouver in Washington Territory. On May 7, 1861, Ord led two companies of the 3rd Artillery from Fort Vancouver to San Francisco. After relocating to the east, Ord's first assignment was as a brigade commander in the Pennsylvania Reserves. In this capacity, he figured prominently in the Battle of Dranesville in the fall of 1861.

On May 3, 1862, Ord was promoted to the rank of

XIII Corps during the final days of the Siege of Vicksburg
.

After the fall of Vicksburg, Ord remained in command of the XIII Corps in the

XVIII Corps. His forces were present during the Battle of the Crater but did not actively participate in the fighting. In the fall of 1864 he was seriously wounded in the attack on Fort Harrison
and did not return to action until January 1865.

In March 1865, during a prisoner exchange in Virginia, Ord spoke with Confederate General James Longstreet. During their conversation, the subject of peace talks came up. Ord suggested that a first step might be for Lee and Grant to have a meeting. General Longstreet carried this idea back to General Lee, who wrote to Grant about the possibility of a "military convention" in the interest of finding what Lee called "a satisfactory adjustment of the present unhappy difficulties". Grant forwarded Lee's proposal to President Abraham Lincoln, with a request for instructions. In the end, Lincoln directed Grant to decline all such offers unless it was for the explicit purpose of accepting the surrender of Lee's army.[6]

It was at this time, during the spring of 1865, that Ord's career peaked. He was assigned command of the

Philip H. Sheridan's cavalry
and force Lee's surrender. General Sherman said that he "had always understood that [Ord's] skillful, hard march the night before was one of the chief causes of Lee's surrender."

General Ord was present at the McLean house when Lee surrendered, and is often pictured in paintings of this event. When the surrender ceremony was complete, Ord purchased as a souvenir, for $40, the marble-topped table at which Lee had sat. It now resides in the Chicago Historical Society's Civil War Room.

After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, many in the North, including Ulysses S. Grant, wanted strong retribution to be visited upon the Southern states. Grant called upon Ord to find out if the assassination conspiracy extended beyond Washington, D.C. Ord's investigation determined the Confederate government was not involved with the assassination plot. This helped greatly to quench the call for revenge on the former Confederate states and people.[7]

Postbellum

Grave of Edward Ord in Arlington National Cemetery

During

Department of Arkansas (1866–67), the Fourth Military District (1867–68), and the Department of California
(1868–71).

Ord commanded the Department of the Platte from December 11, 1871, until April 11, 1875, when he was reassigned as the commander of the Department of Texas. He served in that role until his retirement on December 6, 1880. While he was stationed in Texas, he supervised the construction of Fort Sam Houston.

In January 1872, Ord was a member of the buffalo hunting excursion with the

Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickok, and Texas Jack Omohundro
.

During 1872, Col. Ord and a soldier detachment were assigned to protect the survey parties of the Wheeler Survey as they worked in the vicinity of northeastern Utah.[8]

In 1876, Ord was appointed military governor of the Fourth Military District which included Mississippi and Arkansas.[9]

Ord retired from the army in 1881 with the rank of brevet major general, and at this time, General Sherman wrote of him, "He has had all the hard knocks of service, and never was on soft or fancy duty. He has always been called on when hard duty was expected, and never flinched."

Later in 1881, Ord was hired by his former commander, U. S. Grant, president of the Mexican Southern Railroad owned by Jay Gould, as a civil engineer to build a railroad line from Texas to Mexico City.

In 1882, Ord's daughter, Roberta, married prominent Mexican general Jerónimo Treviño.[10]

While working in Mexico, Ord contracted

Arlington, Virginia.[11]

General Ord's son, Edward O. C. Ord, Jr., was also an Army officer. Ord, Jr. was a hereditary member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, the Sons of the American Revolution and the Sons of the Revolution.

Legacy

Dates of rank

Insignia Rank Date Component
No insignia Cadet, USMA 1 September 1835 Regular Army
Second Lieutenant 1 July 1839 Regular Army
First Lieutenant 1 July 1841 Regular Army
Captain 7 September 1850 Regular Army
Brigadier General 14 September 1861 Volunteers
Major 21 November 1861 Regular Army
Major General 2 May (accepted 12 May) 1862 Volunteers
Colonel 19 September 1862 (brevet) Regular Army
Lieutenant Colonel 11 December 1865 Regular Army
Brigadier General 13 March 1865 (brevet)
26 July (accepted 15 August) 1866 (permanent)		 Regular Army
Major General 13 March 1865 (brevet)
28 January 1881 (retired)		 Regular Army

[20] [21]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Georgetown University Archives including a Xerox copy of a manuscript entitled "History of James Ord as related by himself with other facts collected by his sons" and a copy of a privately printed pamphlet entitled, "Memoranda Concerning James Ord who died January 25, 1873 by his granddaughter Mary Ord Preston 1896" original publication in Georgetown University Library, Special Collections, call number 90A469.
  2. ISBN 978-0-9503308-2-2
    , pp. 149–153.
  3. ISBN 0-09-478220-2
  4. ISBN 0-8021-3703-2
    , pp. 75–78.
  5. ^ Marschner 2000, p. 49
  6. ^ The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress – Ulysses S. Grant to Edwin M. Stanton, March 3, 1865 (Telegram concerning negotiations with Lee)
  7. ^ Catton, Bruce (1969). Grant Takes Command. Boston, Little, Brown. pp. 475–480.
  8. ^ Howell, Edwin E. (1845–1911). Diary of December 12, 1872. Univ. of Rochester Rare Books and Manuscript Collections.
  9. ISBN 0-938626-00-0
    . Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  10. ^ Juan Crouset: A Mexican Soldier and a Yankee Soldier's Daughter
  11. ^ "Burial Detail: Ord, Edward Otho Cresap (Section 2, Grave 982)". ANC Explorer. Arlington National Cemetery. (Official website).
  12. ^ Gudde, Erwin G. (1949). California Place Names. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. p. 244.
  13. ^ Burr, George L. (1921). History of Hamilton and Clay Counties, Nebraska, Volume 1. S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. p. 140.
  14. ^ "Mount Ord, FID:1342086". Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). U.S. Geological Survey. 1979-11-30. Retrieved 2008-11-29.
  15. ^ "Arlington National Cemetery, Ord-Weitzel Gate, Arlington, Arlington County, VA". The Library of Congress. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  16. ^ "Then and Now: Arlington's Ord-Weitzel Gate". Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  17. ^ "Map of Ord Street, San Francisco, California". www.bing.com. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  18. ^ The Chronicle 12 April 1987 p.7
  19. ^ "Map of Ord St NE in Washington, DC". www.bing.com. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  20. ^ Cullum, George W. (1891). Biographical register of the officers and graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., from its establishment in 1802 to 1890. Vol. II (3rd ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. pp. 6–9.
  21. ^ Official Army Register for January 1880. Washington: Adjutant General's Office. 1880. pp. 3, 68.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Edward Ord.
Military offices
Preceded by
Benjamin Butler
 Commander of Army of the James
January 8, 1865-August 1, 1865 		Succeeded by
none
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