Ohio History Journal

OHIO GENERALS AND FIELD OFFICERS IN THE

CIVIL WAR.

 

BY COLONEL W. L. CURRY.

In every crisis through which our Nation has passed since

the firing of that shot at Concord, April 19, 1775, that "was

heard around the world," there seem to have been men born to

meet every emergency; statesmen and men of military genius

called from the walks of civil life to carry the ship of State

safely through; both in peace and war. Therefore when the first

gun of the War of the Rebellion was fired on Fort Sumter, April

12, 1861, and while the smoke still hung over the battered walls

the call came for volunteers, Ohio, with all the loyal North, was

awakened to the danger of the hour.

But little did the citizens of this State realize the part their

sons were to take in this great drama of war to follow. Ohio

was fortunate in having leaders among her citizens who were to

play an important part both as Statesmen and Soldiers. During

the war Ohio furnished a larger number of distinguished gen-

erals than any other State in the Union.

At the very outbreak of the rebellion Ohio generals were

at the front organizing our volunteer armies, and in the first

battle of any note, Bull Run in 1861, General Irwin McDowell

of Ohio commanded the Union army. At the close of the war,

the vanquished and beleaguered Confederate armies of Lee and

Johnston surrendered to Grant and Sherman, both Ohio generals.

After the battle of Bull Run, Virginia, July 21, 1861, Gen-

eral George B. McClellan, a citizen of Ohio, was appointed to the

command of the Army of Virginia. General W. S. Rosecrans, a

native of Ohio, was assigned to the command of the army of

West Virginia. General Don Carlos Buell, a native of Ohio, was

called to the command of the Army of Ohio and drove the Con-

federates from the Ohio river across the states of Kentucky

and Tennessee, and marched on to the relief of Grant's army at

Shiloh, in April, 1862.

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Ohio Generals and Field Officers in the Civil War.  307

 

General Ormsby O. Mitchell of Ohio, cutting loose from

Buell's army at Nashville, Tenn., in March, 1862, swept to the

southeast, through Huntsville, Alabama, and then east to Chat-

tanooga. General Mitchell was called by death, and General

Q. A. Gilmore, another native of Ohio, was assigned to command

Mitchell's division.

General Phillip Sheridan, who gained such fame as the great

cavalry commander of the Union army, was from Ohio. Gen-

eral James B. McPherson, who commanded the Army of Ten-

nessee in the Atlanta compaign and was killed on the battle line

July 22d, 1864, was a native of Ohio and was the only army com-

mander of the Union forces killed during the war.

Major General Thomas J. Wood, a gallant soldier of the reg-

ular army, was a division commander in the Army of the Cum-

berland in many decisive battles, and was especially distinguished

at the battle of Missionary Ridge, Tenn.

Many other Ohio generals rendered distinguished service

on the field in almost every great battle of the war, among whom

may be named Hayes, Schenck, Crook, Garfield, Walcutt, Cus-

ter, the McCooks, Steadman, Stanley, Grosvenor, Beatty, Keifer,

Harris, Lytle, Long, Hurst, Hamilton, and scores of others of

exalted fame and under whose leadership our armies were led

"Always to honor and often to victory."

There were two families of the "Fighting McCooks." The

sons af Major Daniel McCook were Surgeon Latimer A. Mc-

Cook; Colonel George W. McCook; Brigadier General Robert L.

McCook, killed August 6, 1862; Major General Alexander Mc-

Dowell McCook; Major General Edwin S. McCook; Brigadier

General Daniel McCook; Private Charles M. McCook, killed at

the battel of Bull Run Va., July 21, 1861, and Colonel John J.

McCook; midshipman J. James McCook who died in the naval

service before the war,-ten in all. The father Major Daniel

McCook was in the service as paymaster and was killed July

22, 1863 while leading an advance against the rebel General John

Morgan in his raid through Ohio.

Of the other family, sons of Dr. John McCook, brother of

Major Daniel McCook, there were engaged in the service, Major

General Edward M. McCook; Brigadier General Anson G. Mc-

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Cook; Chaplain Henry C. McCook; Commander Roderick S.

McCook, U. S. Navy and Lieutenant John J. McCook, in the

two families, fifteen.

 

 

GALAXY OF OHIO GENERALS.

The total number of generals furnished by Ohio during the

was was 227, divided by rank as follows:

M ajor        Generals     .......................................                                                                              20

Brevet        Major          Generals .................................                                                                  27

BrigadierGenerals ....................................                                          30

Brevet        Brigadier    Generals.............................                                                                       150

 

227

In this number were some whose military fame was known

and praised throughout the whole of the civilized world, and it

may be well doubted if there was an officer in any of the Euro-

pean countries that stood as high as a military leader as did

General Grant at the close of the war, and it is a fact and rather

remarkable that the only officers that have ever attained the

rank of general, excepting Washington, were Grant, Sherman and

Sheridan, all Ohio soldiers.

Grant was commissioned lieutenant general, March 2, 1864,

and held that rank until July 25, 1866, when he was promoted

to general and was succeeded by William T. Sherman, who

became a general in full March 4, 1869, upon Grant's election

to the presidency. Phillip H. Sheridan was promoted to lieu-

tenant general and held that rank until June 1, 1888, when he

was promoted to full general. He died August 5, 1888. The

act promoting Sheridan to the rank of general provided that

the rank should end with the life of General Sheridan. Grant

and Sherman and Sheridan may well be named "Ohio's Immortal

Trinity."

Many persons are laboring under the mistaken idea that a

general is usually in a place of safety during the battle and

directs the movements of his troops from a position far from

the point of real danger. This is all a delusion, as a good officer

never hesitated to go where duty called him, and the most con-

vincing evidence of this is the long "roll of honor" of the gen-

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Ohio Generals and Field Officers in the Civil War.    309

 

erals who were killed on the field in both the Union and Confed-

erate armies. Two notable instances come to mind, General

McPherson of the Union Army and Stonewall Jackson of the

Confederate Army, both of whom were killed while in advance

of their lines of battle. At least six Ohio generals were killed

on the field, viz.: McPherson, Sill, Robert McCook, Dan Mc-

Cook, Lytle and Harker. A score of others were severely

wounded.

 

OTHER FIELD OFFICERS OF OHIO TROOPS KILLED IN BATTLE.

Colonel John H. Patrick, 5th O. V. I., fell mortally wounded during the

Atlanta campaign, May 25, 1864, while actively engaged.

Colonel John T. Toland, 34th O. V. I., was killed at Wytheville, Va.,

July 18, 1863.

Lieutenant Colonel Barton S. Kyle, 71st O. V. I., fell at the battle of

Pittsburg Landing, April 6, 1862.

Colonel William G. Jones, 36th O. V. I., fell at the battle of Chicka-

mauga, September 19, 1863.

Colonel Fred C. Jones, 24th O. V. I., held command of the Tenth Brigade

and was killed December 31, 1862, at the battle of Stone River.

Colonel Minor Milliken, 1st Ohio Cavalry, was killed in saber charge

at battle of Stone River, December 31, 1862.

Colonel George P. Webster, 98th Ohio, fell in the battle of Perryville,

Ky., September 8, 1862, and died on the field of battle.

Colonel Leander Stem, 101st O. V. I., was killed at Stone River, De-

cember 31, 1862.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonas D. Elliott, 102nd O. V. I., was killed at

Athens, Alabama, September 23, 1864.

Colonel Joseph L. Kirby Smith, 43rd O. V. I., fell at the battle of

Corinth, October 4, 1862.

Lieutenant Colonel James W. Shane, 98th O. V. I., fell June 27th, 1864,

in an assault upon the enemy's works at Kenesaw.

Colonel Augustus H. Coleman, 11th O. V. I., was killed at the battle

of Antietam, September 17, 1862.

Colonel J. W. Lowe, 12th Ohio, was killed in the battle of Carnifex

Ferry, September 18, 1861.

Lieutenant Colonel Moses F. Wooster, 101st O. V. I., was mortally

wounded on the 31st of December, 1862, at Stone River.

Lieutenant Colonel Valentine Cupp, commanding the First Ohio Cav-

alry, was killed in the battle of Chickamauga, September 20, 1863.

The loss of officers in both the Union and Confederate ar-

mies in killed and wounded, according to the best of authority, is

larger in proportion than in the rank and file.      This rather

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explodes the story of the private who claimed that he never got

behind a tree in any battle, and who, when asked for his reasons,

stated that "There weren't enough trees for the officers." The

officers and the privates were equally brave and did their duty

on every battlefield, and among the soldiers of both armies who

saw actual service, which means "soldiers who were in battle,"

there is no contention.

There are good reasons why the casualties among the officers

would be in excess of that of their men; not that they were any

braver, but they were exposed in passing along the lines. This

was especially true when troops were protected by breastworks

or barricades, while the duties of the officers were such that he

was more exposed and sharpshooters and crack shots were al-

ways on the lookout for such marks in skirmishing or picket

firing.

In the Union Army there were 6365 officers killed during

the war, which is about one to each fifteen or sixteen men.

In a good organization the average in the army was about

one officer to twenty-five men, so that to have made the propor-

tion equal, the loss would be one officer to each twenty-five men.

At the battle of Shiloh, which was fought without breastworks

or any protection excepting trees and logs, the loss in officers

was about sixteen per cent, which is perhaps afair average,

but at Gettysburg the loss in officers was about twenty-eight per

cent, and in men about twenty per cent.

The following incident is related by an officer who served

under General Dan McCook:

General Dan McCook, when he enlisted in the war for the

Union, said: "Here is for a general's star or a soldier's grave."

He was selected by his law partner, General Sherman, to

lead the assult on Kenesaw Mountain on June 27, 1864. After

all the arrangements for the assault had been made, the brigade

was formed in regimental front, five deep. Just before the as-

saul Colonel McCook recited to his men in a perfectly calm man-

ner the stanza from Macaulay's "Horatius," in which occur these

lines:

"Then out spake brave Horatius,

The captain of the gate;

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Ohio Generals and Field Officers in the Civil War.  311

 

To every man upon this earth

Death cometh soon or late.

And how can men die better

Than facing fearful odds,

For the ashes of his fathers

And the temple of his gods?"

 

Then the brave general gave the word of command and

dashed forward. He had reached the top of the enemy's works

and was encouraging his men to follow when he was riddled with

minie balls and fell back into their arms, wounded unto death.

The summer of 1864 was known as the great battle summer

of the war, and the two most distinguished soldiers commanding

the Union Armies were Grant and Sherman. While Grant,

commander-in-chief, was with the Army of the Potomac battling

through the Wilderness on toward Richmond, the goal for which

that great army had been fighting for more than three years,

Sherman, with his magnificent army, one hundred thousand

strong, was driving the Confederates across the rivers and

through the mountain passes of northern Georgia in that "One

hundred days under fire from Chattanooga to Atlanta."

Atlanta fell September 30, 1864, and that brief, terse dispatch

from Sherman to President Lincoln was flashed-"Atlanta is

ours and fairly won." Then came the "march to the sea," cutting

the Confederacy in two, and the march up through the Carolinas.

The surrender of the Confederate Army under fighting Joe John-

ston to General Sherman, at Durhams Station, North Carolina, oc-

curred April 26, 1865. During the early spring days of 1865

Grant had been closing up the lines around the Confederate

Army under their greatest General, Robert E. Lee and the cav-

alry under dashing Phil Sheridan at Five Forks was blocking

every avenue of escape in the forlorn hope of the Confederate

Army to break through the lines. Then came the climax by the

surrender at Appomattox, April 9, 1865, with Grant, Sherman

and Sheridan the great central figures in the closing scenes. An

Ohio soldier commanding in the first battle of importance and

Ohio soldiers receiving the surrender of the Confederate Armies

at the close of the Civil War are historical events in which every

patriotic citizen of the State can take a just pride.

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