Many a soldier is familiar with Fort Ord. However,
but very few have any knowledge of the man for whom it is named.
Only a small number of historians familiar with Los Angeles's
early history know that the name Ord is almost synonymous with
that city. But few students of early California history are cognizant
of the Ord Surveys of Sacramento and of the Ord Survey of the
pueblo de Los Angeles in 1849. Remarkably, even fewer have any
knowledge of the man himself other than the fact that he was an
army officer.
Edward Otho Cresap Ord was born on October
18, 1818, in Cumberland, Maryland. He was the third son of James
and Rebecca Ruth (Cresap) Ord. His father was an officer in the
United States Navy for a short time, and afterwards a lieutenant
in the army during the War of 1812 (1), and his mother was the
daughter of Colonel Daniel Cresap (2), an officer in the American
Revolution. His grandfather had commanded one of the regiments
which Washington sent to Pennsylvania to quell the Whiskey Rebellion.
In 1819, the Ord family moved to Washington, D.C., when Edward
was just a year old, where he received his early schooling. He
showed in his boyhood great mathematical ability, which attracted
attention and gained for him an appointment to the United States
Military Academy at West Point in September 1835 at the age of
sixteen.
On July 1, 1839, Edward graduated seventeenth
in a class of thirty-one, and was commissioned as a 2d lieutenant,
Third Artillery Regiment. He was one of two lieutenants that were
selected by Colonel William S. Harney to assist in the Florida
Everglades against the Seminole Indians, where for gallant service
he was promoted to first lieutenant. During the four following
years he served on garrison duty on the eastern seaboard.
In 1847, during the Mexican War, Lieutenant
E. O. C. Ord, with his classmate, Lieutenant
Henry W. Halleck, and Lieutenant William
Tecumseh Sherman, was sent to California by way of Cape Horn,
arriving at Monterey aboard the LEXINGTON on January 28, 1847,
two days before Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco. Shortly
after his arrival, he was dispatched with two men to capture three
murderers. He caught up with them at Santa Barbara, shot one who
attempted to escape, brought the other two to jury trial before
an alcade court, securing their conviction, and promptly executed
them.
As a young Lieutenant Ord was placed in
charge of the Monterey garrison (1847-49) and by his individual
efforts did much toward preserving law and order in Monterey during
the Mexican war.
In 1849, Lieutenant Ord had just finished
a survey of Sacramento when Governor Bennett Riley sent a request
to the Ayuntamiento (City Council) at Los Angeles for a
map of the city and information as to titles and the methods of
granting city lots. Governor Riley was informed by the Alcalde
that there was no city map in existence and never had been one,
and furthermore, there was no surveyor in the town to make one.
In response, Governor Riley sent Ord to Los Angeles.
Upon the arrival of Lieutenant Ord in Los
Angeles, and following a short conference with the Council, Ord
received three thousand dollars to survey the city. Ord was to
call his map the "Plan de la ciudad de Los Angeles."
On September 7, 1850, Ord was promoted to
the rank of captain. That year he was on Indian duty in the Pacific
Northwest and was engaged in Coast Survey (December 30, 1852 to
March 29, 1855).
Captain E. O. C. Ord was married to Mary
Mercer Thompson at San Francisco on October 14, 1854. The couple
had two sons and a daughter.
In April 1855, Ord was placed in command
of the garrison at Benicia, California
(1856-58). During 1856, and again in 1858, he campaigned against
the Indians in Oregon, campaigning successfully against the Rogue
River Indians and later against the Spokane Indians in the Washington
Territory. In 1858 he was placed on frontier duty and placed in
charge of Fort Miller in the San Joaguin
Valley, near the present city of Fresno (3).
In 1859, Ord was attending the Artillery
School at Fort Monroe, Virginia, when he participated in the suppression
of the John Brown insurrection at Harpers Ferry. From there, he
was placed on frontier duty at Fort Vancouver, Washington, returning
back to Benicia, California, in 1861, and later that year was
stationed at the Presidio, in San Francisco, at the time of the
firing on Fort Sumter.
On September 14, 1861, Ord was made brigadier-general
of volunteers and given a command in the Army of the Potomac assigned
to defend the capital. Ord was ordered East, and there, led the
attack against Confederate forces under Gen. J. E. B. Stuart at
Dranesville, Virginia, on December 20, 1861, and was promoted
to major-general of volunteers on May 2, 1862, and transferred
to the Western Theater. On September 19, 1862, he was given a
colonel's brevet in the regular army "for gallant and meritorious
service" on the field and was severely wounded a few days
later at Hatchie, Mississippi, and was incapacitated until June
1863, when he returned to the army in time to take part in the
siege of Vicksburg as commander of the Thirteenth Corps. After
the fall of Vicksburg on July 4, Ord held commands in Louisiana
and in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. During the siege of
Richmond he commanded first the Eighth Corps and later the Eighteenth
Corps. He was again seriously wounded at the storming of Fort
Harrison in September 1864 and did not return to his command until
January 1865.
On March 13, 1865, he was awarded the brevet
rank of brigadier-general for his role in the battle of Hatchie,
Mississippi, and a major general's brevet for his part in the
assault on Fort Harrison, Virginia. He was then given command
of the Army of the James with responsibility for the Department
of North Carolina. He was engaged in the various operations about
Petersburg, Virginia, and in the pursuit of General Robert E.
Lee until the surrender at Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865.
He then was given the Department of the Ohio, which he retained
until he was mustered out of the volunteer service in September,
1866, after receiving, on 13 March, 1865, the brevets of brigadier-general
and major-general in the United States army, and the commissions
of lieutenant colonel, on 11 December, 1865, and of brigadier-general
in the regular army, 26 July, 1866.
After the surrender of the Confederate armies,
he first commanded the Fourth Military District. Subsequently
he had command of the Department of Arkansas, the 4th military
district, the Department of California, and the Department of
the Platte, before receiving assignment to command the Military
Department of Texas on April 11, 1875. He supervised the construction
of Fort Sam Houston. His command numbered from 3,000 to 3,900
troops, stationed at San Antonio and forts Brown, Concho, Clark,
Davis, Duncan, McKavett, and Ringgold. From his headquarters at
San Antonio Brigadier General Ord oversaw the scouting, construction
of telegraph lines, and post maintenance and repair, as well as
suppression of cattle rustling and hostile Indians. Troops under
Ord's command were responsible for the discovery of grazing land
in the state's trans-Pecos region as well as deposits of silver,
iron, lead, and copper.
On 6 December, 1880, being over 62 years
of age, he retired with his brevet rank of major-general (by Act
of Congress, approved January 28, 1881), and on this occasion
General Sherman wrote of him:
"He has had all of the hard knocks
of service, and never on soft or fancy duty. He has always been
called on when hard duty was expected, and never flinched."
Subsequently he became identified with various
civilian enterprises. It was during this period that General Ord
accepted the appointment as engineer on the construction of a
Mexican railroad, but contracted yellow fever while on his way
from Vera Cruz to New York. He was taken ashore at Havana, Cuba,
where he died on July 22, 1883.
Upon the death of General Ord, the General-in-Chief,
U.S. Army, issued an obituary order, quoted in part here:
"With profound sorrow the General
of the Army announces the death at Havana, Cuba, at seven o'clock
on the evening of the 22d instant, of MAJOR-GENERAL EDWARD O.
C. ORD, retired, and lately Brigadier-General and Brevet Major-General
on the active list.... Distinguished among his country's defenders,
General Ord was a soldier of national repute. Through his long
military service, reaching towards half a century, his career
has been marked by faithful, devoted, and intelligent dischard
of duty, by personal gallantry, by honest administration, and
by a firmness which was not weakened by his great kindness of
heart. As his intimate associate since boyhood, the General [W.
T. Sherman] here bears testimony of him, that a more unselfish,
manly, and patriotic person never lived."
He was regarded as a model officer –a
gentleman by all who served under him as well. The Rev. S. S.
Seward, who for four years served as his aide-de-camp, said of
him:
"I can truly say that I never saw
him, under any circumstances, lose his self-control or forfeit
for an instant his character as a courteous gentleman. Even his
rebukes never gave offence, while his consideration for others
never failed him even in the face of the enemy. He was brave
as a lion and gentle as a woman. In the camp and on the march
he was exceedingly careful of his soldiers, providing for their
comfort, their clothing, their rations, their medical attendance,
with almost paternal care, and he showed equal solicitude for
the sick and wounded. My respect and affection for him grew as
my appreciation of his genuine manly worth increased with years
and experience." (New York Tribune, July 26, 1883).
His remains were returned to the United
States and here he was interned at the National Cemetery at Arlington
with full military honors. But although Edward Otho Cresap Ord's
military career was a brilliant one, no act of his will place
his name in the minds of Californians more forcibly than by the
military fort that bears his name –Fort Ord.
Fort Ord was named in 1940 in honor of Major
General Edward Otho Cresap Ord. A portion of Fort Ord is now the
home of The California State University, Monterey Bay.
Note: Co-author Charles R. Cresap is a descendant
of Major General Edward O. C. Ord and represents him within the
Aztec Club of 1847.
General Ord's memorial
erected in 1916 at the Vicksburg National Military Park, Vicksburg
Mississippi
Footnotes
(1) James Ord of Maryland.
Appointed from Maryland, First Lieutenant, 36th United States
Infantry, 30 April 1813; Resigned 14 February 1815.
(2) Daniel Cresap, Lieutenant of Maryland
Volunteers.
(3) Fort Miller,
which took its name from Major Albert S. Miller, commander of
the Benecia Arsenal, was established
in 1852 as a temporary headquarters for the Commissioners during
the latter part of the Mariposa Indian
War. The village of Rootville grew into the town of Millerton
and became the first seat of Fresno County in 1856.
Endnotes
Mary Ruth Ord (b. 1855, San Francisco,
CA) Edward Otho Cresap Ord, II (b. 1858, Benicia Barracks, San
Francisco Co., CA; d. 1923, Eagle Rock, Los Angeles Co., California)
Jules Garesche Ord, son of Edward Otho Cresap Ord (b. 1865, was
killed at San Juan Hill 7/1/1898, a member of the 6th US Infantry).
Suggested Reading
Eicher, J.H., and Eicher, D.J., Civil
War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN
0804736413.
Flood, C.B., Grant and Sherman: The Friendship That Won the
Civil War, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2005, ISBN 0374166005.
Many a soldier is familiar with Fort Ord. However,
but very few have any knowledge of the man for whom it is named.
Only a small number of historians familiar with Los Angeles's
early history know that the name Ord is almost synonymous with
that city. But few students of early California history are cognizant
of the Ord Surveys of Sacramento and of the Ord Survey of the
pueblo de Los Angeles in 1849. Remarkably, even fewer have any
knowledge of the man himself other than the fact that he was an
army officer.