Major General Alexander McDowell McCook
By Michael A. Peake

Alexander McDowell McCook, born in Columbiana County, Ohio, on April 22, 1831, was among fifteen members of the powerful "Fighting McCooks" clan under arms for Ohio and the Union cause. McCook graduated from West Point in 1852, and in 1858, he returned as instructor of military tactics. With the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861, Alexander McCook became colonel of the 1st Ohio Volunteers. He was one of the commanders blamed for the Union defeat at Chickamauga in September of 1863. General William Stark Rosecrans ordered McCook relieved from duty in October, and although a court of inquiry exonerated the general, he never received another field command. In 1890 McCook attained a commission as brigadier general in the Regular Army and after receiving a further promotion to major general in 1894, he retired the following year. Alexander McDowell McCook died at age 72 in Dayton, Ohio, on June 12, 1903, and is buried at Cincinnati in Section 10, Lot 1 of the Spring Grove Cemetery.

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Library of Congress: LC-USZ62-129181