Daniel McCook, Jr.
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Daniel McCook, Jr. (July 22, 1834 – July 21, 1864) was a brigade commander in the Union Army who was killed in action in Georgia during the American Civil War.
McCook was born in Carrollton, Ohio, one of the famed Fighting McCooks. He graduated from the University of Alabama in 1858, then returned home to studied law in Steubenville, Ohio. He passed his bar exam and moved to Leavenworth, Kansas, where he formed a partnership with William T. Sherman and Thomas Ewing, Jr..
The men closed their law office when the Civil War began, and ironically, all three would serve as generals in the Union army. McCook was captain of a local company of militia, which became part of the 1st Kansas Infantry. He served under Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Lyon at the Battle of Wilson's Creek. Subsequently, McCook was named as chief of staff of the First Division of the Army of the Ohio in the Shiloh Campaign. He became colonel of the 52nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the summer of 1862 and commanded a brigade under his old law partner Sherman in the Army of the Cumberland.
He was selected by Sherman to lead the assault on Kennesaw Mountain in July 1864, and took his brigade directly up to the Confederate works. Just before the attack, he calmly recited to his men the stanza from Thomas Macaulay's poem of "Horatius" beginning "Then how may man die better than facing fearful odds?" He had reached the top of the enemy's works, and was encouraging his men to follow him, when he was fatally wounded. For the courage that he displayed in this assault, he was promoted to the full rank of brigadier general, to date from 16 July 1864, but he survived only a few days.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography.
