Edward M. McCook

Edward Moody McCook (June 15, 1833 – September 9, 1909) was a lawyer, politician, distinguished Union cavalry general in the American Civil War, American diplomat, and governor of the territory of Colorado. He was a member of the famed "Fighting McCook" family of Ohio. Four of his brothers and 10 of his first cousins served as officers, with six of the family members becoming generals before the end of the war. Early life and career McCook was born in Steubenville, Ohio, on June 15, 1833. As a young man, he moved to the Kansas Territory and became a lawyer. He joined the Pike's Peak Gold Rush in 1859 and represented the Pikes Peak region in the Kansas Territorial House of Representatives. Civil War With the onset of the Civil War in 1861, McCook traveled to Washington, D.C., and served for a time as a secret agent for the federal government, gathering information of value to the military. He then enlisted as a cavalry lieutenant in the regular army. He then joined the volunteer army as a captain in the 2nd Indiana Cavalry, rising to the rank of colonel by the middle of 1862. McCook commanded a cavalry brigade at the Battle of Perryville and a division at Chickamauga. On April 27, 1864, he was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers and given command of the First Cavalry Division in the Army of the Cumberland. His 3,600 cavalrymen raided and severed the Macon & Western Railroad in late July 1864 while serving under George Stoneman during the Atlanta Campaign. One of his goals was to release the 32,000 prisoners of war being held in the Andersonville Prison. However, as they tried to return to the main army on July 30, McCook was thoroughly defeated by Confederate cavalry under Joseph Wheeler at the Battle of Brown's Mill near Newnan, Georgia, losing 950 men, 1,200 horses and two pieces of artillery.