Ord was born in Cumberland, Maryland, the son of James and Rebecca Ord. Some accounts say that James Ord was the illegitimate son of George IV of England and that the name Ord stands for "Of Royal Descent" because he was not allowed the royal last name (source: material currently in the Georgetown University Archives including a xerox copy of a manuscript entitled "History of James Ord as related by himself with other facts collected by his sons" and a copy of a privately printed pamphlet entitled, "Memoranda Concerning James Ord who died January 25th, 1873 by his granddaughter Mary Ord Preston 1896" original publication in Georgetown University Library, Special Collections, call number 90A469). He was considered a mathematical genius and was appointed to the United States Military Academy by President Andrew Jackson. His roommate at West Point was future general William T. Sherman. He graduated in 1839 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 3rd U.S. Artillery. He fought in the Second Seminole War in Florida and was promoted to first lieutenant.
In January 1847, he sailed on the steamship Lexington around Cape Horn with Henry Halleck and William Sherman. He arrived in Monterey, California, and assumed command of Battery F, 3rd U.S. Artillery, with orders to complete Fort Mervine, which was renamed Fort Halleck. Its construction was superintended by Lieutenant Ord and his second in command, Lieutenant Sherman. On February 17, 1865, the fort was renamed Ord Barracks. (It is now known as the Presidio of Monterey.)
Ord was in California when the gold rush began, with its resultant skyrocketing prices. Since their military salaries no longer covered living expenses, Ord's commander suggested that the younger officers take on other jobs to supplement their income. In the fall of 1848, Ord and Sherman, in the employ of John "August" Sutter, Jr., assisted Captain William H. Warner of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the survey of Sacramento, California, helping to produce the map that established the future capital city's extensive downtown street grid. Ord also produced a map of the Gold and Quicksilver district of California dated July 25, 1848. Later, Los Angeles officials needed to have a survey of the public lands in order to sell them, and Ord was hired as the surveyor. He chose William Rich Hutton as his assistant, and together the two mapped Los Angeles in July and August 1849. Thanks to the efforts of these two men, historians have a fairly good view of what the pueblo of Los Angeles looked like at the middle of the 19th century. Lieutenant Ord surveyed the pueblo and his assistant Hutton sketched many scenes of the pueblo and drew the first map from Ord's survey. The Los Angeles City Archives has the original map produced by Hutton from Ord's survey. Ord was paid $3000 for his work on this survey.
Ord was promoted to captain in 1850, while serving in the Pacific Northwest. He married Mary Mercer Thompson on October 14, 1854, and they eventually had thirteen children.
In 1859, while attending artillery school at Fort Monroe, Virginia, Ord was summoned by Secretary of War John B. Floyd to quell John Brown's raid on the Harpers Ferry Federal arsenal. However, Col. Robert E. Lee reached Harpers Ferry first, and Colonel Lee telegraphed to Captain Ord that the situation was under control and Ord and his men would not be needed at Harpers Ferry. They were instructed to halt at Fort McHenry in Baltimore.
After the outbreak of the Civil War, Ord's first assignment was as a brigade commander in the Pennsylvania Reserves. In this capacity, he figured prominently in the Battle of Dranesville in the fall of 1861.
On May 3, 1862, Ord was promoted to the rank of major general of volunteers and assigned command of the 2nd Division of the Army of the Tennessee at Corinth. Although he was seriously wounded at the Battle of Hatchie's Bridge in Mississippi, he returned to duty and commanded the XIII Corps during the last part of the Vicksburg Campaign.
In 1864, Ord was transferred back to the Eastern Theater. During the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign, he commanded the XVIII Corps and was seriously wounded in the attack on Fort Harrison. He did not return to action until January 1865.
Ord's career peaked in the spring of 1865, when was assigned command of the Army of the James during the Appomattox Campaign. On April 9, he led a forced march to Appomattox Court House to relieve Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan's cavalry and force Lee's surrender. General Sherman said that he "had always understood that [Ord's] skillful, hard march the night before was one of the chief causes of Lee's surrender."
In March 1865, during a prisoner exchange in Virginia, Ord spoke with Confederate General James Longstreet. During their conversation, the subject of peace talks came up. Ord suggested that a first step might be for Lee and Grant to have a meeting. General Longstreet carried this idea back to General Lee, who wrote to Grant about the possibility of meeting to discuss ending the war. After several letters back and forth, it was agreed to meet at the McLean house.
Ord was present at the McLean house when Lee surrendered, and is often pictured in paintings of this event. When the surrender ceremony was complete, Ord purchased as a souvenir, for $40, the marble-topped table at which Lee had sat. It now resides in the Chicago Historical Society's Civil War Room.
Ord commanded the Department of the Platte from December 11, 1871, until April 11, 1875, when he was reassigned as the commander of the Department of Texas. He served in that role until his retirement on December 6, 1880. While he was stationed in Texas, he supervised the construction of Fort Sam Houston.
In January 1872, Ord was a member of the buffalo hunting excursion with the Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia on the plains of southwest Nebraska with American celebrities of the day. They included Philip Sheridan (second in command of the United States Army), Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickock, and Texas Jack Omohundro.
Ord retired from the army in 1880 with the rank of brevet major general, and at this time, General Sherman wrote of him, "He has had all the hard knocks of service, and never was on soft or fancy duty. He has always been called on when hard duty was expected, and never flinched." In 1881, Ord accepted an appointment with the Mexican Southern Railroad, owned by U. S. Grant and Jay Gould, as a civil engineer to build a railroad line from Texas to Mexico City.
Ord died in Havana, Cuba, from yellow fever. On the occasion of his death, General Sherman said of Ord, "As his intimate associate since boyhood, the General here bears testimony of him that a more unselfish, manly, and patriotic person never lived". He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
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