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Alexander McDowell McCook

Alexander McDowell McCook (April 22, 1831 – June 12, 1903) was a career U.S. Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War.

McCook was born in Columbiana County, Ohio. His family was prominent in army service—his father Daniel and seven of Alexander's brothers, plus five of his first cousins, fought in the war. They were known as "The Fighting McCooks", for whom McCook Field in Dayton, Ohio, was named. His brothers Daniel McCook, Jr., Edwin S. McCook, and Robert L. McCook were all Union generals, as were his cousins Anson G. McCook and Edward M. McCook.

McCook graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1852, served against the Apaches and Utes in New Mexico in 1853–57, and was assistant instructor of infantry tactics at the military academy in 1858–61.

At the start of the Civil War, McCook became Colonel of the 1st Ohio Infantry in April 1861. He served in the First Battle of Bull Run, commanded a brigade in Kentucky in the winter of 1861, a division in Tennessee and Mississippi early in 1862, and the I Corps in Kentucky in October of the same year, seeing combat in the Battle of Perryville, where his command was nearly routed off the battlefield. He was in command of Nashville in November and December of that year, commanding a corps in the Battle of Stones River, where once again his troops were routed. In the summer of 1863 he once again led his corps in the campaign that would result in the Battle of Chickamauga, where for the third and final time his command was routed off the battlefield; he was courtmartialed but not convicted. He saw no more active service at the front for the remainder of the war.

McCook was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers in September 1861, and to major general of volunteers in July 1862. He earned the brevet of lieutenant colonel in the regular army at the capture of Nashville, Tennessee, that of colonel at Shiloh, and that of brigadier general at the Battle of Perryville. In March 1865 was breveted major general for his services during the war. From February to May 1865, he commanded the district of Eastern Arkansas.

McCook resigned from the volunteer service in October 1865 and was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the 26th Infantry in March 1867. He served in Texas, mostly in garrison duty, until 1874. From 1875 to 1880, he served as the aide-de-camp to the general-in-chief of the U.S. Army, Gen. William T. Sherman. From 1886 to 1890 (except for brief terms of absence), he commanded Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and the infantry and cavalry school there.

McCook became a full brigadier general in 1890, a major general in 1894, and retired in 1895. In 1898–99, he served on a commission to investigate the United States Department of War as administered during the Spanish-American War.

Alexander McDowell McCook died in Dayton, Ohio, and is buried in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, Ohio.

• Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.