John Eager Howard

This 1904 statue of John Eager Howard by Emmanuel Frémiet stands in Mt. Vernon Square in Baltimore Maryland.  The Municipal Art Society erected this statue to make up for Howard's being passed over for representation in the Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol. That honor went to John Carroll and John Hanson.

For a short biography of John Eager Howard see Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography or Harper's Encyclopædia of U.S. History.

John Eager Howard

by Benson Lossing in Harper's Encyclopædia

John Eager Howard

1752-1827

Cindy Kelly says that “To create an equestrian monument of Howard, the society commissioned one of the foremost French sculptors of the nineteenth century, Emmanuel Frémiet. Next to Barye, who was an early rival, Frémiet was considered the finest French animalier.”

E. Fremiet

LeBlanc-Barbedienne

Fondeur, Paris

On the rear (south) end of the base of the statue is a bronze reproduction on the gold medal by Benjamin Duvivier that Congress awarded Howard for his heroics at the Battle of Cowpens. 

JOH.  (Johanni)  EGAR. (sic)  HOWARD  LEGIONIS  PEDITUM  PRÆFECTO

COMITIA  AMERICANA

 (The  American  Congress  to  John  Eager Howard,  commander  of  a  regiment  of  infantry.)

This iconography of the obverse of this medal is described in  Medallic History of the United States by Loubat and Jacquemart, 1878.

Lieutenant-Colonel  Howard,  on  horseback,  is  in  pursuit  of  a  foot-soldier of  the  enemy  who  is  carrying  away  a  standard.  A  winged Victory  hovers  over  him,  holding  in  her  right  hand  a  crown  of laurel,  and  in  her  left  a  palm  branch.

 The reverse of the medal says:

QUOD

IN NUTANTEM HOSTIUM ACIEM

SUBITO IRRUENS

PRAECLARUM BELLICAE VIRTUTIS

SPECIMEN DEDIT

IN PUGNA AD COWPENS

XVII. JAN. (Januarii) MDCCLXXXI.

(Because by rushing suddenly on the wavering lines of the enemy, he gave a brilliant example of martial courage at the battle of the Cowpens, January 17, 1781)

This charge is referred to in “Maryland, My Maryland,” our former state song, as “Howard's warlike thrust.”

The medal we see hanging from Howard's button on the statue is his congressional medal.

And here Col. Howard competes with traffic on Charles Street near the Washington Monument.

No Stopping