Oliver Otis Howard was a graduate of Bowdoin College and West Point. He was a Civil War general, and a top commander under W.T. Sherman, and underwent a religious conversion to become "the Christian General." Howard received the Medal of Honor after losing his arm in battle and received a special congressional commendation for his selection of the Gettysburg battlefield. General Howard headed the Freedmen's Bureau and led post-Civil War Reconstruction, placing him in direct conflict with President Andrew Johnson. W.E.B. DuBois perhaps stated it best: "The most fortunate thing that Lincoln gave the [Freedmen's] Bureau was its head, Oliver Howard. Howard was neither a great administrator nor a great man, but he was a good man. He was sympathetic and humane, and tried with endless application and desperate sacrifice to do a hard, thankless duty." He also helped found African-American universities including Howard University, which bears his name.