Menu
Gen. McCook: What's in a name?
In this 125th, Quasquicentennial year of the founding of McCook, Nebraska it is interesting to look back at some of the people and events in our past that have served to make McCook the city it is today. Where better to start than with the fellow for whom McCook is named, General Alexander McDowell McCook.
Many of the early towns in frontier Nebraska were nam-ed for the citizens who first settled the territory. But in McCook's case, one man made that choice for for an all together different reason. Alexander Campbell, the man who was responsible for McCook's very existence, was the Superintendent of the local division of the railroad (which included what is now McCook) at the time McCook was being planned. He changed that tiny settlement, Fairview on the banks of the Republican River, to an entirely new city. Campbell held a position of high authority in the railroad, and could well have named our fair city Campbell, as a boost to his ego. Instead, he chose to name the new city after a man he much admired---his friend and colleague, General Alexander McDowell McCook, a hero of the Civil War.
Alexander McCook was born in Columbiana County, Ohio in 1831, one of eight boys and three girls. Their father, Daniel was a prominent Attorney who had come to Ohio from New York in 1826. The family was noteworthy because Daniel and all eight of his boys served with the Union Army during the Civil War.
Daniel McCook, through his professional and political connections, was able to secure an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point for his son, Alexander, where he graduated with the Class of 1852, just in time to be sent west to fight Indians.
The United States had enjoyed an uneasy peace with the Apache Indians during and just after the War with Mexico. The Apache had been longtime foes of the Mexicans and welcomed the United States and provided protection to American troops into and through their territory, as long as they were fighting the Mexicans. But that war ended, and when gold was discovered in the Santa Rita Mountains, and American prospectors began encroaching on Apache territory, fighting erupted anew, under the Apache Chiricahua Chief Cochise.
For four years McCook fought the Apaches and Utes in New Mexico. Finally, in 1858, he was ordered back to West Point to teach Infantry Tactics to Army Cadets. That tour of duty in that location lasted until the start of the Civil War.
The War provided McCook with a rapid rise through the ranks. As a Colonel in the 1st Ohio Infantry, McCook took part in the 1st Battle of Bull Run. He was singled out for his bravery and organizational skills, and by 1862 he had been promoted to Brigadier General of Volunteers and commanded an Army Division in Kentucky and Mississippi. Later, in July of the same year, he was promoted to Major General of Volunteers and helped organize a Division of The Army of Ohio. He led this Division at the Battle of Nashville and again at the Battle of Shiloh. In both these engagements both McCook and his men were cited for their bravery under severe enemy fire.
After Shiloh McCook assumed command of the Army of Ohio Reserve Forces and participated in the Siege of Corinth in Mississippi. In October, 1862 he led his troops against Southern forces at Perryville, and during that winter his troops fought yet again at the Battle of Stone's River.
Later, under General Rosecrans, McCook's Div-ision took part in the Battle of Chicamauga. Both Stone's River and Chicamauga were less than great victories for the Union forces, and General McCook, along with several other Union Gen-erals, was singled out for blame in those battles. Later, a Court of Inquiry found that McCook had not been to blame for any of the failures in those battles, but the damage to his career was done. He was removed from positions of battlefield command and spent the rest of the war in semi-obscurity as the Military Administrator of East Arkansas.
After the Civil War ended, in 1865 Alexander McCook chose to stay in the Army and was assigned to various posts in the West. He was a good administrator and fulfilled his Army duties with distinction, but out of the spotlight, mainly in Garrison Duty in Texas, until 1874. From 1875 until 1880 McCook served as the Aide-de-camp to the legendary Civil War Commander, Lt. General William Tecumseh Sherman.
McCook's last major command was that as Commander of Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, where he oversaw both the Infantry and Cavalry schools. In 1895 Alexander McCook retired from the Army as a Major General.
It was mainly in the years after the Civil War that McCook became a close friend of Alexander Campbell of the Burlington Railroad. After the war there was a good bit of interaction between the Army and Railroad men.
The Railroad men had visions of a rail line that would span the width of the American continent.
The Army looked favorably upon the railroad as a means of aiding in communication and transportation between widely separated posts in the American West. Railroaders were in frequent contact with Army officers, especially those with knowledge of conditions in the west. These officers frequently served on various Boards of Directors for the Railroads.
So it was natural that Railroad man, Campbell would seek out officers like Gen. McCook, with his practical knowledge of the geography of the Western United States and his administrative skills, to help the railroad in its plans for expansion to the west.
It is doubtful that General McCook ever did visit his namesake city, but we can be sure that Superintendent Campbell kept him apprised of the progress of the new community---and we can be certain that Superintendent Campbell, in naming his new town after his friend, was paying a great honor to a man in whom he placed the highest esteem. All in all, McCook was not a bad choice for the name of our fair city.
General Campbell remained active in retirement. He was one of a small Committee of respected Army officers who were tabbed with the responsibility to investigate the actions of the Department of War, in Administrating the Spanish American War.
In 1897 General Alexander McCook (along with Mrs. McCook) was chosen to represent the President of the United States at the Coronation of the Czar of Russia in Moscow.
Alexander McDowell McCook died in 1903 at Dayton, Ohio. He is buried in the McCook (family) Memorial section of the Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio.