Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Oliver Wendell Holmes the younger, (March 8, 1841 – March 6, 1935) was an American jurist noted for his hard-edged rejection of the prevailing property-rights ideology embraced by other judges of his time. He was called The Great Dissenter.

Civil War experience

After graduation, Holmes joined the United States Army at the outset of the American Civil War. He saw much action, from the Peninsula Campaign to the Wilderness, and suffered wounds at the Battle of Ball's Bluff, Antietam, and Chancellorsville. He was mustered out in 1864 as a brevet Lieutenant Colonel. Many historians have traced Holmes' advocacy of legal realism as well as his hard-edged rejection of romanticism and natural rights theory to his war experiences. Holmes' letters to his parents during the war reflect a hard-bitten callousness to the loss of human life, a necessary defense mechanism for a man who had seen so many friends killed in so many bloody battles. Holmes recalled later that he was not a natural soldier but preferred intellectual pursuits.

Related Topics:
United States Army - American Civil War - Peninsula Campaign - Wilderness - Battle of Ball's Bluff - Antietam - Chancellorsville - 1864 - Brevet - Lieutenant Colonel - Legal realism - Romanticism - Natural rights

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One Civil War story involving Holmes is well known, but probably apocryphal: In July 1864, the Confederate general Jubal Early conducted a raid north of Washington, D.C., and Abraham Lincoln came out to watch the troops skirmishing. At six foot four, with his stovepipe hat adding eight inches to his height, Lincoln stood on the parapet, watching smoke puffs from Confederate snipers, seemingly unafraid, even when an officer three feet from him was dropped by a Confederate bullet. A 23-year old Oliver Wendell Holmes saw this foolhardy target sticking up, and not realizing it was the President of the United States, shouted, "Get down, you damn fool, before you get shot!" Lincoln promptly obeyed.

Related Topics:
July - 1864 - Confederate - Jubal Early - Washington, D.C. - Abraham Lincoln - Parapet - Sniper - Bullet - President of the United States

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