The Commanders by Robert M. Utley

Author:Robert M. Utley [Utley, Robert M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Published: 2017-02-15T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

EDWARD O. C. ORD

Edward Ord was an individualist, his character and personality not entirely in harmony with military structure. An impulsive, restless nonconformist, he often ran afoul of the structure and as often sought to manipulate it. Within the structure, his quick mind and proficiency in mathematics won widespread admiration. Energetic, aggressive, imaginative, inventive, courageous to a fault, and possessed of uncommon endurance, he made a good soldier, though sometimes lacking judgment and inattentive to personal appearance.

Edward Otho Cresap Ord was born on October 18, 1818, in Cumberland, Maryland, his ancestry shrouded in mystery and said to involve English royalty. With political support from Maryland and nearby Washington, D.C., he entered the military academy at West Point in 1835 and graduated in 1839. As a second lieutenant in the Third Artillery, he immediately joined his regiment in Florida, where the Seminole Indian War was in progress. The hostilities lasted until 1842, and Lieutenant Ord distinguished himself scouting into the forbidding Everglades, skirmishing with Seminoles, and fighting in one vicious combat. In July 1841 he was promoted to first lieutenant.1

PACIFIC SERVICE

Recruiting service, the Coast Survey, and other routine duties kept Lieutenant Ord out of the Mexican War. After enduring the long voyage around Cape Horn to the Pacific, he arrived in Monterey, California, on January 27, 1847, three weeks after California had fallen to the Americans. A shipmate was the other lieutenant of his company, William T. Sherman. Four months after arrival, the company’s captain departed for the East, leaving Ord to take over the unit, with Lieutenant Sherman as his second in command. Based in Monterey, Ord and Sherman’s artillery company and a company of dragoons formed the only regular army force in California. The two officers rode the countryside, sightseeing and getting acquainted with the people.

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