The Fighting McCooks account for three more actual generals and one brevet general. The McCooks hailed from eastern Ohio – Daniel raising his family in Carrollton while John grew his in Steubenville. Buried here Spring Grove is Daniel’s family – John’s family lies, for the most part, at Union Cemetery in Steubenville.
John, as a physician, volunteered his services to the Union army. He was joined by another brother George, a surgeon – joined also by his son. Daniel volunteered to serve as a paymaster. Nine of his sons joined the cause – the “Tribe of Dan”. Three would die in combat. John and his five sons – the “Tribe of John” – all survived.
The Fighting McCooks put more men from the McCook family into the Federal armed servics during the Civil War than any other family in the nation.
THE TRIBE OF DAN
DANIEL MCCOOK
Representing the Cincinnati branch of the Fighting McCooks, Daniel McCook was the pater familias of the “Tribe of Dan”. He practiced law before the war in Carrollton. Known as “Judge McCook” for his time as a probate judge, he had a lot of friends in high places in Washington at the beginning of the war. He, himself, was in the capital as a railroad lobbyist trying to get money authorized for the building of a transcontinental rail line from Chicago to San Francisco. At the same time, he sought financing for another firm he represented, the Mount Carbon Coal Company, so they could develop their rich coal fields in southern Illinois to make iron for railroads. But the war intervened.
Daniel was recruited to be one of the Frontier Guards, recruited by Senator-elect Jame H. Lane of Kansas to help protect the White House in the days of April 1861. They were relieved by the arrival of the 7th New York 25 April.
The Federal army finally began to build in response to President Lincoln’s call for militia to gather. Irwin McDowell’s army marched out in late July to meet their Confederate adversaries grouped together along Bull Run. Many people from Washington went out to witness what they thought would be the first and last battle of the war.
FIRST BULL RUN
Among the attendees was Judge McCook. With him in his carriage were four Democratic congressmen friends of his, John McClernand, John Logan and John Richardson of Illinois along with John Noell of Missouri. Three of the McCooks were in Brigadier General Daniel Tyler’s 1st Division – Alexander was colonel of the 1st Ohio; Charles had enlisted as an 18-year-old private and his cousin Anson was a captain in the 2nd Ohio, the same regiment Charles enlisted in.
In the prelude to the main affair at Bull Run, a probe by Tyler’s division turned into a real fight at Blackburn’s Ford. The action turned McCook, McClernand and Logan into combatants as they unslung rifles. Dashing into the field, they helped retrieve wounded men.
DOWN TWO SONS
Charles would die after being mortally wounded the next day. The first of his three sons to die, Daniel became hardened seeking revenge in some manner. He became a captain in the Ohio militia and was soon at major even though he was already 63 years old.
With the death of a second son, Robert, at what was thought to be an assassination – a recovering-from-a-wound son riding in an ambulance was shot trying to surrender by a Confederate guerilla known as Frank Gurley.
In early July 1863, Confederate Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan launched a raid with 2,500 cavalrymen across Kentucky and into the southern parts of Indiana and Ohio. Three Federal columns pursued Morgan’s Raiders in response. One of the three, commanded by Brigadier General Henry Judah, came up the Ohio River on steamboats. With Judah was Major McCook in search of one Frank Gurley.
BUFFINGTON ISLAND
Morgan was cornered in late July at Buffington Island where he hoped to cross the Ohio back into Kentucky. Joining an advance scouting party on 19 July, McCook was shot when the party ran into a Confederate skirmish line obscured by early morning fog.
Morgan’s force was thrashed as he lost over 800 men, most captured. He escaped with under a thousand men but along with 400 men they surrendered being cornered in eastern Ohio 26 July.
McCook went on a steamboat with the Confederate prisoners taken at Buffington Island, he died of his abdominal wound on 21 July, two years to the day of the night he nursed his son Charles after Bull Run. Daniel was 65.
Frank Gurley, the target of the Fighting McCooks, survived the war, though his farm was burnt to the ground. He was captured 13 October 1863 and sentenced to die. Eventually, his appointment with death was suspended by President Andrew Johnson and Lieutenant General Grant released him after Gurley took the oath of allegiance to the US. He survived until 1920.
DR. LATIMER ABRAHAM MCCOOK
Latimer Abraham McCook studied medicine under his uncle’s guidance, getting a medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. Joining the army as an assistant surgeon, he became a major with the 31st Illinois. He survived the war and his two wounds – one at Vicksburg and the other near Savannah in late 1864. The wounds later proved fatal with Latimer dying from complications 23 August 1869.
GEORGE WYTHE MCCOOK
George Wythe McCook studied law after graduating from Ohio University with Edwin Stanton. Eventually, he became partners with Stanton. Proving an original piece of the Fighting McCooks, during the Mexican War, George served as an officer in the 3rd Ohio coming back at war’s end as the regimental commander.
Back from Mexico
Active in politics, he served as Attorney General of Ohio from 1854 to 1856. With the Civil War, he became one of the first four brigadier generals selected by the Governor of Ohio, but because of his health – impaired from service in Mexico – he declined. Later, as lieutenant colonel of the 2nd Ohio, he spent much of the war recruiting for new Ohio regiments.
He did serve as the colonel of the 157th Ohio formed as a short-term regiment created to perform duties behind the fronts allowing veteran units to go to on campaign. Then he became the second-in-command at the Fort Delaware prisoner-of-war camp.
At war’s end, George gained a brevet rank as brigadier general as he resumed his legal practice. He died at the age of 56 in 1877.
ROBERT LATIMER MCCOOK
Robert Latimer McCook was the middle son of Daniel. A lawyer with the Stanton & McCook law firm in Steubenville first, then branched off to form his own firm in Cincinnati before the war, he organized and became the colonel of the 9th Ohio regiment.
He suffered his first wound at Mill Springs while leading a bayonet charge. Going back to service before fully recovering – now as a brigadier general, Robert could not ride horseback for long distances and needed to ride in an ambulance wagon. Near Huntsville, Alabama he was mortally wounded 21 March 1862, dying the next day. A second of the Fighting McCooks to die in the war.
ALEXANDER MCDOWELL MCCOOK
Alexander McDowell McCook, took the Fighting McCooks to another level graduating from West Point in the class of 1852. He served on the New Mexican frontier from 1853 until 1857 when he became an assistant instructor of infantry tactics back at the academy.
A first lieutenant at the time of the Civil War, he took a commission as colonel of the 1st Ohio in April 1861. After seeing action at First Manassas, he gained promotion to captain in the regular army.
In the volunteers, Alexander became a brigadier general 3 September 1861, commanding a brigade in Kentucky that fall and a division in February 1862. At Shiloh, he led the 2nd Division of the Army of the Ohio on the second day and on into the siege of Corinth gaining further promotion to major general of volunteers in July 1862.
CORPS COMMAND AND BEYOND
Next, he became a corps commander. His corps suffered at Perryville and at Stones River. At Chickamauga, his troops were driven from the field, and he became a scapegoat. Court-martialed, but not convicted, shelved for almost a year – being a pro-slavery Democrat did not help him in the eyes of Edwin Stanton – he helped defend Washington DC during the threat of Jubal Early in 1864.
Alexander went on to serve in the army after the war, reverting to captain but eventually retiring as a major general in 1895. He died after a stroke 12 June 1903 at the age of 72.
DANIEL MCCOOK JUNIOR – STAR STRUCK
Daniel McCook Junior graduated from the Florence Wesleyan Alabama University – today’s University of Northern Alabama. Returning home to Steubenville, he studied law. After passing his bar exam, he moved to Leavenworth, Kansas to become a law partner with William T. Sherman, Hugh Boyle Ewing and Thomas Ewing Jr. With the war, the practice closed, and all partners served as generals in the Federal army.
McCook was a local militia captain. His company became part of the 1st Kansas Infantry. The regiment fought at Wilson’s Creek suffering more than 50% casualties. Daniel was not there ill with pneumonia.
At Shiloh, he was chief of staff for the 1st Division of the Army of the Ohio – George Thomas’ division, they arrived after the battle. On 15 July 1862, Daniel became colonel of the 52nd Ohio, moving quickly to command a brigade in Philip Sheridan’s division. They fought at Perryville, but afterwards found themselves in the Reserve Corps.
Reaching for the Stars
Daniel, one of the true Fighting McCooks, suffered an infection many young officers succumbed to, the goal of gaining a general’s star. His brigade became one of the main influencers in the early stages at Chickamauga. Kept mostly in the rear, however, it would not be this battle for him to grasp his goal.
Continuing as a brigade commander – and a colonel – he marched with his brigade under Sherman during the Atlanta campaign. At Kennesaw Mountain, Daniel led his men up to the front of the Confederate works at The Angle where he was mortally wounded by a rifle shot to his right lung 27 June 1864. He received his star finally on the day before his death.
The day he received word of his promotion, Daniel, now literally on his deathbed – he died one day later – back in Ohio said, “The promotion is too late now. Return it with my compliments. I decline the honor.”
EDWIN STANTON MCCOOK
Fighting McCooks served on sea as well as land. Edwin Stanton McCook was the seventh son of the “Tribe of Dan”, he followed an earlier brother into the naval service. His older brother, John, another graduate of Annapolis, died as a midshipman in 1842 of an illness beginning with a cold he caught serving in the tops of the USS Delaware during a night watch. The cold worsened and John was buried at the British Cemetery Gamboa in Rio de Janeiro. His name is listed on the family monument here at Spring Grove.
Edwin proved a lazy student, however, and after failing examinations and attempting to accumulate a record of demerits in two attempts, he gave up Annapolis becoming a riverboat pilot.
Civil War
With the Civil War, his father tried to get him a commission in the Regular Army, but they demurred, even considering a recommendation from Lincoln. Instead, Edwin became a captain with the 31st Illinois serving under his friend, Colonel John A. Logan. After seeing action at Belmont and Fort Henry, he was wounded at Fort Donelson suffering a bruised kidney from a fall off his horse. Promoted to lieutenant colonel, he was back in time for the Vicksburg campaign.
Edwin took over Logan’s brigade when the latter gained promotion to division command. As a colonel, Edwin replaced Logan as division commander leading through Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Atlanta and the following March to the Sea. He was wounded two more times gaining a brevet promotion to brigadier general and another brevet to major general.
The Dakotas
After the war, Edwin moved west to become Secretary of the Dakota Territory in 1872. A year later, he was appointed acting governor of the territory. While serving in that capacity, he got in an altercation with a local banker. The banker shot McCook four times. Wounded, Edwin still was about to throw his assailant through the window, but bystanders intervened. Efforts to stop the bleeding from the gunshots proved unsuccessful and McCook died 11 September 1873 in true Fighting McCooks’ fashion.
JOHN JAMES MCCOOK
John James McCook was the youngest son. Named after his uncle, John left Kenyon College bitten by the Fighting McCooks need to serve, enlisting as a private with the 52nd Ohio 12 August 1862, but age did not allow him to muster into service. Eventually, he joined the 6th Ohio Cavalry as a first lieutenant, becoming assigned to the staff of Thomas L. Crittenden. Serving with Crittenden, a corps commander in the Army of the Cumberland, John was involved with the battles from Perryville to Chattanooga.
Becoming a captain in September 1863, he transferred to the Army of the Potomac as an aide-de-camp. During the Battle of Spotsylvania, he was badly wounded near Shady Grove, Virginia and never fought again even after recovering. He gained a brevet promotion to major after the battle. At the end of the war, he gained brevet promotions to lieutenant colonel and colonel.
Following the war, he returned to Kenyon graduating in 1866. Following graduation from Harvard Law School in 1869, John went to work for the legal firm of Alexander & Green in New York City, eventually becoming a senior partner. He died in 1911 at the age of 66.
CHARLES MORRIS MCCOOK
The eighth son of the Tribe of Dan, Charles Morris McCook had just started as a freshman at Kenyon College when the Civil War began. Refusing the offer of a commission in the Regular Army, Charles instead enlisted as a private in the 2nd Ohio.
The regiment was part of Brigadier General Daniel Tyler’s 1st Division of Irwin McDowell’s Army of Northeastern Virginia – soon to become the Army of the Potomac. Assigned to guard duty at a field hospital where his father also happened to be tending to the wounded. At the end of the battle, Charles got word his regiment was under attack. Taking leave to rejoin his regiment, Confederate cavalry overran the hospital as he was leaving. A Confederate trooper tried to make him a prisoner, but Charles shot his adversary through the head. This brought about the attention of the Confederate leader who advanced on Charles with pistol drawn demanding his surrender. Charles answered, “I will never surrender to a traitor!” His father, seeing the enemy surrounding them, called on his son to give up, but Charles replied, “Father, I never can surrender to a rebel!”
The Confederate circled around and shot Charles in the back demanding his surrender again. After another refusal, the officer struck him with the flat of his saber, threatening to run him through if he continued to refuse. Just then as his father moved to raise a gun to defend his son, another Federal soldier shot and killed the Confederate.
FATAL WOUND
Daniel McCook took his son to a nearby surgeon who told him the wound did not appear fatal. Putting Charles in his carriage, he took his son to Fairfax Court House where another surgeon removed the bullet. This surgeon gave Daniel the bad news, the wound would prove to be fatal having destroyed many internal organs.
Daniel remained with Charles until he died early the next morning, the first of the Fighting McCooks to fall in the war. Daniel moved his son’s body back to Washington where Charles initially lie buried in the Congressional Cemetery only moved later here to Spring Grove.
THE TRIBE OF JOHN
The eastern branch of the Fighting McCooks based themselves in Steubenville, on the Ohio River upriver near the Pennsylvania border.
EDWARD MOODY MCCOOK
Edward Moody McCook went to Kansas as a young lawyer before joining the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush in 1859. Just before the war, he represented the Pikes Peak region in the Territorial House of Kansas. However, by the time he traveled eight hundred miles by oxcart to Lecompton, he found his district not included by Congress in the new State brought into the Union 29 January 1861.
Next, he traveled to Washington, looking out for his interests as his county – Arapahoe – became part of the new Colorado Territory. McCook began returning to Colorado when war began. Returning to Washington, he joined his uncle Daniel and brother Henry as a member of the Frontier Guards, self-selected guardians of the government until Federal army units could arrive to bolster the capital’s defenses.
New Officer
He also served as a courier to carry dispatches from General Winfield Scott through Maryland. Of the eight couriers sent out on 23 April 1861, he was one of only two to reach his destination and return. In recognition of his boldness, Scott gave him a second lieutenant’s commission in the 1st US Cavalry, then returning to Washington from duty at Fort Leavenworth.
A bout of syphilis made him miss the Battle of Bull Run. Assigned by the Army to recruiting duty. But as one of the true Fighting McCooks, he instead joined the 2nd Indiana Cavalry as a major. As a lieutenant colonel, he led the regiment at Shiloh. They arrived on the afternoon of the second day of battle, crossing the Tennessee River too late to make much of an impact.
Army of the Cumberland
By the time of Perryville, 8 October 1862, Edward reached the rank of full colonel commanding an 1,100-man brigade. Through Stones River and Tullahoma campaigns Ed and his horsemen rode. At the end of Chickamauga, McCook’s force recaptured most of the many captured wagons and about 500 mules taken from a long Federal supply train.
In all of the fighting, Edward caught the disease many young officers became infected with, the desire to wear a star. “I exercise a Major General’s command with a Colonel’s rank; the only man in the army that does.”
A month after that last battle, McCook took a 20-day leave going first to his home in Steubenville and then to Washington. Lincoln remembered the dashing colonel from the early days of the war and sent Edward’s name forward – 23 April 1864 – to the Senate for confirmation as a brigadier general, which came four days later. Another general for the Fighting McCooks.
Near the end of July, Sherman sent his two best cavalry divisions – for now, Edward upped his command game to a division – to knock out John Bell Hood’s western supply line, the Macon & Western Railroad.
Atlanta Raid
Setting out early on 27 July, McCook’s men burned a swath through the vital Confederate line the following day at the little town of Palmetto. They then captured complete a five-mile-long Confederate supply train, including 72 officers and 350 men. Burning the wagons – including the personal belongings of Hood and his corps commander William Hardee – they set out next towards Fayetteville where they captured another 150 Confederates. They ripped up two and a half miles of their railway target, as well.
Supposed to wait for the other Federal division, McCook wasted time when they did not show up. By now he had much of the Confederate cavalry, reinforced with some infantry, at his heels. Surrounded, he was called on to surrender. McCook held off the enemy while two of his brigades fought their way out. Edward then led a charge of 1,200 men by column through the Confederate line, leaving his prisoners behind. By August 3, the raid was over. He lost about 500 men.
After the fall of Atlanta, McCook continued serving in the Army of the Cumberland, his horsemen serving during the Franklin-Nashville campaign. He then served as division commander in Wilson’s Raid – March and April 1865 – and at the Battle of Selma where Nathan Forrest lost over half of his force while failing to stop the raid.
Ed finished the war in Florida where the last active troops in the state surrendered 13 May. He was awarded a brevet promotion to major general.
Postwar
Resigning from the army a year later, McCook was appointed as US Minister to the Kingdom of Hawaii from 1866 until 1868. Now-President Grant, in 1869, made McCook Territorial Governor for Colorado, a position he held until 1875. Turning to business, he grew wealthy from investments living a high life until much of his fortune dissipated during the Panic of 1893 and the depression of 1884.
He was heading to a position in the Philippines in 1900 when he became ill in San Francisco. Turning back, he returned home living his final years supported by his brothers. He died of Bright’s Disease in 1909.
ANSON MCCOOK
John’s second son, Anson McCook, headed off to California and Nevada in 1854, at 18 years of age, to spend several years mostly involved in mining. Returning home in 1859, he studied law at Stanton & McCook passing the bar. Before setting up a practice, however, the war began.
Another true member of the Fighting McCooks, Anson enlisted first in the three-month 2nd Ohio as a captain seeing action at Bull Run. Soon, the 2nd Ohio reorganized into a three-year regiment and Anson moved up through the ranks first as a major, then lieutenant colonel and finally, colonel.
Army of the Cumberland
With the Army of the Cumberland, he marched his men through Perryville, Stones River, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. At Stones River, Anson moved to command the regiment, replacing Colonel John Kell who fell. At Chickamauga, many of the regiment did not hear the order to withdraw at the end of the second day of battle with 36 men captured. Anson missed that battle, on leave up in Hartford, Connecticut to see his youngest brother graduate from Trinity College as valedictorian.
Late in the afternoon of 23 November, Anson led his men up the slopes of Lookout Mountain to reinforce Hooker’s troops as the battle began to calm down. The next day, they joined in on the assault on Missionary Ridge capturing much of the 38th Alabama – 28 officers and 282 men.
Promoted to brigade command for the Atlanta campaign, he won official acclaim for his service at Peachtree Creek. In late 1864, McCook mustered out of service with the rest of his regiment.
Eastward Bound
Soon, the next year, McCook mustered in again as the colonel of the 194th Ohio. This regiment signed up for one year. Leaving Ohio on 14 March 1865, they participated in the Shenandoah Valley until April before moving to Washington to perform garrison duty until they mustered out 24 October. The regiment did not see any combat.
After the war, Anson returned to Ohio and gained admission to the bar. He moved to New York City in 1873 going into publishing. Elected for two terms as a congressman – 1877 until 1883, he served as Secretary of the US Senate from 1883 until 1893. From 1895 to 1898, he served as chamberlain for New York City, retiring back to publishing for the rest of his life. He died 30 December 1917 but lies buried in Steubenville.
RODERICK SHELDON MCCOOK
The sea called Roderick McCook to Annapolis as a 15-year-old midshipman. After a fight at the end of his second year at the Naval Academy, his resignation was called for. A letter of apology and friends in high places, he gained reinstatement graduating in June 1859.
War
Aboard the USS San Jacinto, a steam frigate serving as the flagship of the African Squadron, the ship involved itself in stemming the slave trade.
Captured the brig Storm King near the mouth of the Congo River with 719 slaves crammed aboard. The slaves were set free in Liberia and Midshipman McCook was in command of the ship sailing it to Norfolk, Virginia.
With the war, McCook went aboard the USS Minnesota, a 47-gun steam frigate blockading Charleston. After the capture of the blockade running privateer Argo on 19 May 1861, McCook sailed the captured vessel to New York City. In June, he took the captured Savannah also to New York.
In late August, the Minnesota led fourteen ships to Cape Hatteras to bombard Forts Hatteras and Clark which fell to an army unit led by Major General Benjamin Butler.
Command
Promoted to lieutenant, Roderick was assigned as executive officer on the steamer USS Stars and Stripes prowling the waters of Hatteras Inlet. On 11 January 1862, the ship joined a fleet of one hundred others gathered near Fort Monroe. Next, 7 February, in three columns, the ships bombarded Confederate defenses on Roanoke Island while General Butler landed his troops to capture the island.
11 March saw the Stars and Stripes join twelve other warships along with transports carrying 12,000 Federal troops under Brigadier General Ambrose Burnside. Commanding a naval battery of six howitzers, McCook went ashore on 13 March becoming the first naval officer to capture a Southern army regiment.
At 23 years of age, McCook gained command of the Stars and Stripes. He was on blockade duty through the summer before the ship went to Philadelphia for repair. With a ten-day leave, he quickly went to Steubenville, where he became married.
Ashore until January 1863, Roderick next went assigned as executive officer for the USS Bienville in the western Gulf of Mexico. The squadron there commanded by Rear Admiral David Farragut, who had been the executive officer on the USS Delaware when Roderick’s cousin, Midshipman John McCook died at sea in 1842.
Monitor Service
On 3 December 1863, Roderick became the executive officer for the USS Canonicus, one of nineteen new ironclads built for the navy at the Boston Navy Yard. Similar in design to the Monitor but a bit larger, she had a maximum speed of 7 knots with a crew of 85.
Like other monitors of the time, the Canonicus was not seaworthy on its own, needing other ships to tow it to her battle station. With two 11-inch Dahlgren guns in the turret, included as one of almost 60 ships assembled for an assault on Fort Fisher protecting the last Confederate port open to blockade runners in October 1864.
A hurricane scattered the fleet on 8 December but reassembled the Canonicus fired 85 shells at Fort Fisher on 24 December. For Christmas Day, another 49 shells fired off at the fort dismounting two of the fort’s guns. The accompanying Federal troops were repulsed by the Confederate defenders, however.
A second try in January with more troops on hand was successful. The Canonicus got as close as 700 yards of the fort, taking some forty hits. But the fort fell this time, and the South effectively closed to the outside world.
Finis
Ordered next to Charleston to replace another ironclad sunk by a mine, the Canonicus shelled the city from the sea on 17 February 1865 as Confederate commander General William Hardee abandoned the city on General P.G.T. Beauregard’s orders with Sherman close at hand.
On the morning of 19 February, the blockade runner Deer captured, and Roderick sailed the ship to Boston. Fighting McCooks on sea as well as land.
Postwar
With the war over, Roderick gained promotion to lieutenant commander and assigned to Annapolis. Here he commanded the midshipman’s practice vessel the USS Macedonian. He was at sea next as executive officer of the USS Kearsarge, USS Albany and the USS Congress before, now as commander, he gained command of the USS Kansas in 1873.
Commanding the USS Yantic in China in 1876, he suffered a nervous breakdown, thought to be the result of service in the bowels of the Canonicus. His last naval service was in lighthouse duty along the Ohio River from 1880-1882. He retired from the navy in 1885. Only a year later, thrown from a carriage, he suffered a brain injury leading to his death three days before his forty-seventh birthday.
THE CHAPLAINS
HENRY CHRISTOPHER MCCOOK
Two of the Fighting McCooks’ Tribe of John served in the Federal army in a spiritual capacity. Henry Christopher McCook was the third son of the tribe. He learned the printing trade in his youth. Graduating from Jefferson College in 1859 – a Presbyterian-aligned school – he began studying for a life in the ministry at Western Theological Seminary in Allegheny, Pennsylvania – today’s Pittsburg Theological Seminary.
Henry was serving as a curate at the Presbyterian church in Clinton, Illinois when the war began. Taking the last train to reach Washington, he joined his uncle Daniel with the Frontier Guards to help protect the new administration in 1861.
Into the War
With the end of the siege of Washington, after trying to become a chaplain in a volunteer unit from Ohio. Ohio army chaplains needed to be ordained, something Henry had not quite finished yet. So, he headed back to Illinois where he helped raise troops for the Federal army.
Following the death of his cousin Charles at Bull Run, in the true spirit of the Fighting McCooks, Henry enlisted with the 41st Illinois as a first lieutenant. Henry served as the regiment’s chaplain after gaining his ordination on 1 October 1861.
Resignation
Some of the officers of the regiment were not as abolition minded as he was. A few would return runaway slaves who sought protection from the soldier to their masters in exchange for a fee. The regiment’s colonel, Isaac Pugh, turned a blind eye to the practice. In response, Henry resigned his commission 21 December 1861.
Ministerial Career
He returned to Clinton as a minister, later moving to St. Louis and then back to Steubenville. In 1878, he became pastor for the Seventh Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, a position he held for the rest of his life.
Henry wrote several books on religious subjects and historical fiction as well as studies on ants and spiders – he was an officer in both the American Entomological Society and the American Academy of Natural Sciences.
With the Spanish American War in 1898, Henry enlisted once more as chaplain for the 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment. Dying in 1911, he lies in Woodlands Cemetery in Philadelphia.
LITTLE JOHNNY – JOHN JAMES MCCOOK JUNIOR
John James McCook Jr. was the youngest son in the Tribe of John. He started off studying at his father’s alma mater, Jefferson College, before getting expelled at the end of his second year for an article he ran as editor of the college paper – lampooning the faculty.
With the war, Little Johnny, in Fighting McCooks’ spirit, enlisted as a private in what became the 1st West Virginia Regiment – made of mostly Ohioans. Moving up in rank, he eventually gained election as a second lieutenant, gaining his commission when he turned 18. Next, John gained an appointment to George McClellan’s staff as an assistant quartermaster but, he soon returned to his regiment bored by the bookkeeping duties of a quartermaster.
Resuming an Education
As the term of his three-month unit came to an end, so did Little Johnny’s foray into the war. Resuming his studies, he graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut as valedictorian in 1863. After a quick foray into medical school, he returned to the study for the ministry graduating from Berkeley Divinity School in 1866. As an Episcopal minister, he became rector at St. John’s Episcopal Church in East Hartford.
Marrying Eliza Butler, they settled within the comfortable confines of the Butler home with plenty of servants and money until 1883 when it was discovered Eliza’s inheritance had been mismanaged.
Professor McCook
John became a language professor – Latin – at Trinity College. Fluent in six languages and a workable proficiency in another six, he became the head of the foreign language department in 1888.
With World War One, John tried, at the age of 74, to enlist with his daughters thinking his language skills could be of use. They ended up not accepted, but all three of his sons served overseas returning home in 1919.
He continued to teach until 1923 at the age of 80, serving for a brief time as president of the college. n 1927, John, the last of the Fighting McCooks to die. He lies in the Cedar Hill Cemetery of Hartford.