The Fighting McCooks A Father Buries a Son and His Sons Bury Him Daniel Sr July 19 and Charles July 21

          Exploding shells, rapid-fire musketry, and the screams of wounded men added to the growing confusion in the makeshift hospital. Daniel McCook (1798-1863), a 63-year-old volunteer nurse from Ohio, tried to concentrate on his job, but he was pre-occupied with his own worries. On the battlefield near Manassas Junction that day - July 21, 1861 - two of his sons, as well as a nephew, were fighting for their country and their lives.

          Exhausted and emotionally drained by the unrelieved suffering, McCook needed a break and walked outside. What he saw both thrilled and terrified him. Amidst a group of soldiers covering the retreat of the obviously shattered Union army, stood his second youngest son, Charles Morris (1843-1861). He had not seen the boy since the lad left Kenyon College before the end of his freshman year to volunteer at the outbreak of war. Declining a commission arranged by family friend Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, the 17-year-old had instead enlisted as a private in the 2^nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Now, he suddenly found himself face-to-face with his father. After the shock of the unexpected encounter subsided, they warmly embraced. Charles then briefly took leave of his comrades to lend a hand with the wounded.

As the young private turned back to rejoin his regiment, troopers from the already renowned Confederate “Black Horse” cavalry intercepted Charles and his comrades and called on them to surrender. Aiming his musket at an officer, Charles shot him from his horse and held off the others for several minutes with his bayonet. Watching with growing trepidation and recognizing the hopelessness of the situation, his father called on his son to yield, to which Charles calmly replied, "Father, I will never surrender to a rebel." Moments later the boy was cut down. His father, shattered by what he had seen, rushed to his son and cradled him in his arms; the boy died moments later. His remains were removed from the field and were buried in the family gravesite at Spring Grove Cemetery. [i]

Called the “Fighting McCooks of Ohio,” no less than sixteen members of the family served the Union cause during the Civil War[ii]. The McCooks were a Scotch-Irish family that originally settled in Pennsylvania during the late 18^th Century. George and Mary (nee McCormack) McCook had three sons, George (1795-1873), Daniel and John (1806-1865). After being educated at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, all three made their homes in Ohio, establishing very deep personal, professional, and political ties within their adopted state. The political connections, in particular, would lead to many important relationships that would help their sons before, during, and after the war.[iii] The two younger brothers raised large families, siring fourteen sons between them, giving their names to the two major branches of the family, “the Tribe of Dan,” and, “the Tribe of John.”[iv]

Daniel and his wife Martha (nee Latimer) eventually settled in Carrollton, Ohio where he was a successful real estate investor and owner of a brick-making plant. Described by a local historian as “a man of commanding presence, an ardent patriot, and an earnest Christian, he possessed a most gentle and amiable disposition, combined with the highest personal courage, untiring energy, and great force of character.[v]” He was also active in civic affairs and served as first clerk of the Court of Common Pleas when Carrollton became a county seat. Later, he became one of the leaders of the Democratic Party in eastern Ohio.

 

After the death of his son Charles, Daniel McCook successfully pressed for a commission in the Ohio Home Guard, in spite of his age. A year later his son Robert was murdered by Confederate partisans. Stationed at Cincinnati during BG John Hunt Morgan’s third raid into Ohio, Major Daniel McCook, then 65 years old, rode with the pursuing troops and led an advance party trying to block Morgan at Buffington Island in southern Ohio. In the skirmish that followed on July 19, 1863, the patriarch of the “Tribe of Dan” was mortally wounded and died two days later on July 21, 1863, exactly two years after Charles’ death at First Bull Run. His funeral attracted senior officers and national press; Those of his sons able to leave the field came to bury their father, but the agony was not over.

Altogether, the family produced two major generals, five brigadier generals, one colonel, two majors, three lieutenants (including a chaplain and naval officer), a volunteer surgeon, and one very heroic private.[vi] In nearly every major Western campaign, at least one “Fighting McCook” was on the battlefield, often serving with bravery and distinction in the thick of the action. Four members of the family – all from the “Tribe of Dan” - were killed in action and many of the others suffered wounds and illness.  It would be difficult – perhaps impossible - to find another American family that made such a dramatic contribution – and offered so great a sacrifice.

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[i] Henry Howe, LL.D., Historical Collections of Ohio - An Encyclopedia of the State, v.1, Columbus: State of Ohio, 1890, pp. 365-370.

[ii] There is confusion over the number of the “Fighting McCooks.” The Encyclopedia of the American Civil War  (pg. 1279) as well as Who’s Who in the Civil War  (pg. 410) cites 17, as does Boater’s The Civil War Dictionary, (pg. 526), which includes three unnamed (and undocumented) sons of Daniel in the total. Generals in Blue, (pg. 294) as well as Webster’s American Military Biography (pg. 259) puts the number at 14 and Harper’s Encyclopedia of Military Biography (pg. 466) states of Alexander McCook , “no fewer than 14 of whom (his father, all seven brothers, and five cousins in addition to Alexander) served in the Union army”. One source of confusion likely stems from the fact that there is no record that John, patriarch of the “Tribe of John,” ever served in a military unit, although he did volunteer as a surgeon. Another is that John James (of the “Tribe of Dan”) is counted, although he died 20 years before the Civil War.

[iii] Howe, Historical Collections of Ohio, pp. 365-370

[iv] Includes a boy who died in infancy and John James who died in Brazil in 1842, while serving as a Midshipman in the US Navy. There were also a number of daughters, whose husbands also served in the Union Army.

[v] Howe, Historical Collections of Ohio, pp. 365-370

[vi] Includes brevets made at the end of the Civil War