Called the “Fighting McCooks of Ohio,” no less than sixteen members of this family served the Union cause during the Civil War. A Scotch-Irish clan that originally settled in Pennsylvania during the late 18th Century, the two branches 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. 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 – in time of war.
Daniel McCook, Jr. (1834-1864) was a lawyer before the war and partner of William Tecumseh Sherman and Thomas Ewing all of whom became generals in the Union Army. Daniel joined the 1st Kansas Volunteer Infantry as a Captain, serving with distinction at Wilson's Creek, Kentucky and after assignment as chief of staff of the First Division, Army of the Ohio, he was appointed Colonel of the 52nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the summer of 1862.
In October of 1863, just a year after hearing of his brother Colonel Robert L. McCook's assassination by Confederate partisans, Dan’s regiment was operating near Huntsville, Alabama close to scene of his brother’s terrible encounter. Vengeance was at hand. Dan McCook personally sought out trigger-man Frank Gurley’s home and like an avenging angel, he tore it apart, and “left not one stone upon another,” making of it, “a place of desolation.” Shortly after that episode, he was given a brigade in General Phil Sheridan's division in the Army of the Cumberland.
On June 27, 1864, in what many consider a terrible blunder, his friend General Sherman launched a frontal attack against the fixed Confederate positions on Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia. McCook was selected to lead the charge, which everyone viewed as a suicidal mission. In one of the great dramatic and emotional moments of the war, the doomed commander gathered his men around him for what everyone realized was a farewell. The words Dan McCook spoke were from Horatius at the Bridge, Thomas Macaulay’s epic poem of hopeless heroism and self-sacrifice and were a fitting epitaph.
To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds
Taking a position in the front rank of his beloved 52nd Ohio, he led his brigade into the maelstrom, clutching the colors in one hand and swinging his saber in the other, and leading a small band of men to the very edge of the enemy’s earthworks. One soldier yelled, “Colonel Dan, for God’s sake get down, they’ll shoot you!” Answering the man with a curse, he pressed on, until he fell, riddled by Minié balls and mortally wounded. Transported to his brother George’s home, he died there on July 17, 1864, one day after he was promoted to Brigadier General of Volunteers. Curiously, the date of death on his grave is July 21, 1864, the same day his father and brother fell. He was the last of the McCooks to fall.
The McCooks were one of the most remarkable families in our history and their fame – though now mostly forgotten - lasted for many years. Celebrated by the media, one vignette reported in the New York Times of March 27, 1878 offers an especially poignant example of how powerful the emotional appeal of the “Fighting McCooks” remained, and how broad their impact truly was, even more than a decade after the war had ended. Four strangers were waiting in a Dayton, Ohio restaurant for their train, when they began to chat about the war.
“One of the veterans was a member of the First Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Col. A.D. McCook; another of the Second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Col. Anson G. McCook; another of the Ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Col. Robert McCook, and the fourth man of the Fifty-Second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Col. Daniel McCook. The conversation between the veterans was becoming interesting and animated when the sound of the locomotive bell called them to separate, but it was with a hearty ‘shake’ and goodbye” They soon realized that remarkably each had served in a regiment commanded by a McCook."
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