The story of the fighting McCooks

There are at least three towns in the United States with the name of McCook -- one in Illinois, one in Texas and one in Nebraska, as well as an airfield named McCook in Ohio. While there is some controversy over just how McCook, Neb., got its name, the generally accepted version is that it was named in honor of Civil War General Alexander McCook. Gen. McCook was one of 15 of the McCook family who fought in the Civil War, on the side of the North. Four of the family died in the war. Collectively they earned the title of"The Fighting Ohio McCooks."

Gen. Alexander McCook fought in some of the most significant battles of the Civil War -- at Perryville, Murfreesboro and Chicamauga. In 1863, he was put in charge of the defenses of Washington, ahead of the invasion by the forces of Jubal Early. Though McCook had some 900 cannon for the defense of the Capital, he was woefully short of fighting men. Northern troops had been ordered to the south, to join Gen. Grant, attacking Lee at the Wilderness and Cold Harbor. McCook was left with a force, which he described as "a mild-mannered set of clerks and convalescent soldiers." Gradually, Early's Confederate troops tightened up an invasion ring around Washington. The front lines were within walking distance of the White House and one of Gen. McCook's problems was protecting the safety of President Lincoln, who insisted upon looking out over the parapets at the enemy while bullets whined overhead about him. Finally Grant dispatched the veteran VI Corps to the rescue of the Capital City. Jubal Early's forces fell back, and Washington was saved.

After the war, Gen. Alexander McCook went on to fame as an Indian fighter in the West. He retired from the service in 1895, but still served in the War Department during the Spanish American War. He died in 1903, shortly after attending the Coronation of the Czar in Russia, as an official observer for the President.

There is no evidence that Gen. McCook ever visited McCook. However, he was a warm friend of Alexander Campbell, the first Superintendent of the Republican River Division of the Burlington Railroad. Campbell suggested that Fairfield, "the gem on the Republican," as we were then known, be changed to McCook, to honor the man, whom Campbell described as "A lusty Indian fighting, frontier soldier, a man who, in his exploits, displayed the courage, determination, stamina and leadership that were so much a part of the early pioneers, who literally carved homes from the unbroken sod of a semiarid Nebraska."

Another one of the Fighting McCooks was Captain Daniel McCook, who fought at the Battle of Shiloh. He was a part of the force, which fought at the Sunken Road, producing the withering fire that the Southern forces called the Hornets Nest. During this battle bullets came through a peach orchard with such velocity that the blossoms were stripped from the trees. Capt. McCook referred to this fierce battle as "spring's offerings to heroic dead." Later, Daniel, by then a Colonel with Sherman's Army, was killed in the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in Georgia.

Another of the family is Col. D.N. McCook, who commanded a cavalry unit which fought off a surprise attack on the Union lines at Dandridge, Tenn. in January 1864. Though Col McCook' s men suffered heavy casualties, they are attributed with saving the Union forces at that battle.

Still another of the family is Gen. Edwin M. McCook, who fought at the battle of Perryville, and later served with Sherman in his Georgia campaign. He was engaged, with (Gen. Stoneman) in an attempt to free large numbers of northern prisoners from the infamous Prison Stockades at Macon and Andersonville in Georgia. Edwin McCook was in charge of a cavalry unit, which destroyed some two miles of track, burned two trains of cars and some 500 wagons, killed 800 mules and took some 400 prisoners. But at Newman, Ga., he was surrounded by enemy forces. After a bitter fight he made his escape, albeit with the loss of some 600 men.

One of the saddest of the McCook stories occurred at a little known battle at Buffington's Ford, in Ohio in 1863. Gen. J.H. Morgan had led a Confederate cavalry invasion force into Ohio, from Kentucky. In this bold invasion, his forces had marched steadily toward Cincinnati, burning mills, destroying bridges, tearing up rail lines, and plundering towns and farms as they went along.

Union Home Guard Units managed to slow his advance enough so that Regular Northern Army troops caught up with him at Buffington's Ford and engaged him in battle. The fight was severe and resulted in Morgan's defeat, and subsequent imprisonment.

In this battle, we find Pvt. Daniel McCook, who was 65 years old at the time. He had already given eight sons to the Union service, and had seen four of them rise to the rank of General. Daniel got word that one of his boys had been deliberately murdered by guerillas, while he was ill and riding in an ambulance in Tennessee. When he heard that the murderer was in Morgan's band, Daniel took up his rifle and went out to join in the fight at Buffington's Ford, either to route out his son's killer, or to avenge his death.

He succeeded in joining his eight sons in Union service, but at the Battle of Buffington's Ford, Pvt. Daniel McCook was severely wounded and within a few days died from his wounds. Though the details about some of the members of the Fighting McCook family are sketchy, there is plenty of evidence to show that we can be proud that our town is named after a member of such an illustrious family.

Source: Campfire and Battlefield, by Rossiter Johnson Gazette Centennial Edition 1882-1982.