THE FIGHTING McCOOKS An Address delivered by Dr. A.M. Reid August 29, 1906 Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County C2000 FORWARD Dr. A.M. Reid was an educator who felt that Steubenville should have a public library. In 1899, Dr. Reid wrote to Mr. Andrew Carnegie in Scotland And asked that a grant be made to Steubenville for A library. Due to this connection, Dr. Reid gave the library A copy of the speech he delivered in 1906 regarding The "Fighting McCooks" of Carrollton and Steubenville. The family is famous for its members who served the United States in the military during the Civil War. This is a copy of the notes from that speech. April, 2000 1 THE FIGHTING McCOOKS An address delivered by Dr. A.M. Reid Mr. President, Ladies and gentlemen: It has been said that some of us are disposed to boast of our State. Especially has this charge been made against the Ohio Society of New York? But when you come to think of it we have some ground for boasting not so much on account of our fertile acres and the cattle upon a thousand hills as because of the great men we have given to the country and the world. Who have this country and the world all the Presidents of the United States but two in the last forty years? Ohio. It does your heart good just to repeat their honored names. Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, McKinley, all good and honored names. And it is more than twice as many as all the rest of the States put together during that period. Then adding William Henry Harrison we have a splendid bead roll of fame, six Presidents from a state little more than a hundred years old. And what state furnished the Great War Secretary, Stanton, to manage the forces, in our great Civil War, and the great Secretary of the Treasury, Chase, to manage the finances, the sinews of War? Ohio. And what State furnished the three greatest Generals of the War, Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan, who fought our battles and saved our country when its life trembled in the balance? Ohio. And Ohio sent with them to the War 310,000 brave soldiers. It has been said half playfully and yet more than half truthfully, that Ohio saves the other states the trouble of raising Presidents, Generals and Members of the Supreme Court. And few things have conferred greater distinction upon our State than the Fighting McCooks. As so high an authority as Harper's Encyclopedia of the United States History, is in error, making General Alexander McDowell McCook and General Anson G. McCook brothers, it may be well to give a correct list of the two families of which the Fighting McCooks were composed, designating the rank to which they attained and giving certain striking incidents, in the lives of 2 some of them. And first the sons of Major Daniel McCook, who was long known before the war, as the Supt. of the Presbyterian Sunday School in Carrollton, honored and loved by old and young. I name them in regular order: Surgeon Latimer A., General George W., Major General Robert L., Major General A. McDowell, General Daniel Jr., Major General Edwin Stanton, Private Charles Morris, Col. John J., Midshipman John J., the third son died in the Naval Service before the Rebellion. Ten in all, all officers but one, three attaining to the high rank of Major General. We may safely challenge the whole country to produce such family record in the annuals of the War. Let the noble Mother of these noble sons give some incidents which will at once show her sons' bravery and her own sorrows and tribulations. Mrs. McCook, a fine Christian spirit who had the daily beauty in her life, as well as an ardent lover of her country, was for many years a good friend of ours. And sometimes in the dark hour she would come to talk with my wife of her crushing bereavements, seeking from us a little comfort and sympathy when her trials seemed almost more than she was able to bear. I remember the first day she came, her eyes red with weeping, and her heart almost bursting with anguish, and she said "my son Charles is killed. He said he would not surrender to a rebel and them shot him on the spot." For those of you who are familiar with the history of the war, we remember that Charles was a college boy of less than eighteen, had left his regiment to speak to his father who was engaged in hospital work. Before rejoining his regiment he was surrounded by some Rebel Black Horse troopers who demanded his surrender. His father seeing his hopeless situation called to him to surrender. But he called back, "Father I will never surrender to a rebel" and fighting the rebels, like a tiger, with gun and bayonet he was soon overcome by the troopers and shot dead. His venerable father, who saw him killed, had to carry his lifeless body from the field. One thinks of Old Priam taking up the body of his son, the brave Hector, slain by Achilles, on the field of Troy. Another time the dear Mother came and said "My son Robert is killed." The rebels shot him, though he was wounded and being taken away in an ambulance." This was the one that was often spoken of as the Brave Gen. Bob McCook with his bully Dutch. He had a German regiment who were always in the thickest of the fight. Another time the good mother came and said, "My son Daniel was is killed. He was shot on the field of battle." It was Daniel who was in the Law Firm with General Sherman and Thomas Ewing before the war. General Sherman had 3 selected him to lead the assault on Kennesaw Mountain. Apparently having a premonition that death was nigh; General McCook recited to his men just before the assault Macaulay's fine lines, from Hortius. "Then out spake brave Horatius, The Captain of the gate, To every man upon this earth Death cometh soon or late. And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds For the ashes of his fathers And the temples of his gods. For the tender Mother, Who dangled him to rest And for the wife that nurses, His baby at her breast. Then, at his word, they dashed forward. He himself leading on and encouraging his men to follow, had reached the top of the enemy's ranks, when he was pierced by a dozen Minnie balls and fell back fatally wounded, to survive but a few days. One thinks of Arnold Winkelried taking to his breast an armful of spears and breaking the enemy's line. "Make way for liberty he cried Made way for liberty and died." Another time Mrs. McCook came and said, "My husband is killed." He was past the age of enlisting and need not have gone to the war. But he was patriotic and he put himself at the head of some troops to intercept Morgan who was invading our State and he was killed by the Confederates at Buffington Island. I love my country and am glad to give my sons to her service but it is hard to part with so many of them and with my husband forever, for human hearts will bleed, when loved ones are taken away, however devoted to our country we may be. We think of Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi, or of Niobe mourning for her children slain. This my friends is one of the most awful results of war, the unutterable sorrow and anguish it brings to the innocent, to mothers and wives, to sisters and sweethearts and children. These aspects of war and others even worse, made General Sherman say, "War is hell." Yet we do honor, in our heart of hearts, the brave men, who when the awful necessity comes, offer lives a willing sacrifice to save the life of their country. Col. John J. McCook who made a brilliant record in the War and who is now a distinguished member of the bar in New York and President of the Ohio Society 4 in New York is the only surviving member of this branch of the Fighting McCooks. It is perhaps not betraying any secret to say that he had the high honor of being offered a place in the Cabinet of President McKinley. But the portfolio, not suiting his tastes he thought best to decline the honor. Bit in his presence we may not say all that we might. And we are to have the great pleasure of hearing something from his own lips tonight. The other family of the Fighting McCooks consisted of Dr. John McCook and his sons. Dr. John McCook like his brother, was for years Superintendent of a Sunday School. It was in the First Presbyterian Church of Steubenville under the beloved Dr. Comingo. In the summer of 1860 when the war was brewing Dr. Comingo himself used to practice shooting, behind his church, for he declared that if war broke out he was going down South to shoot rebels. Though a Kentuckian, he was loyal to the core. Dr. McCook's family of the Fighting McCooks consisted of five sons, manely, Major General Edward M., General Anson G., Lieutenant and Captain Henry C., Commander Roderick S. of the Navy, and Lieut. John J. five in all-and all officers one having reached the high position of Major General and one of Brigadier General.