Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: February 15, 2021 at 4:33:40 PM EST > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-FedHist]: Neumann on Fanebust, 'Brigadier General > Robert L. McCook and Colonel Daniel McCook, Jr.: A Union Army Dual Biography' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Wayne Fanebust. Brigadier General Robert L. McCook and Colonel > Daniel McCook, Jr.: A Union Army Dual Biography. Jefferson > McFarland, 2017. 242 pp. $35.00 (paper), ISBN 978-1-4766-6986-1. > > Reviewed by Ellen Neumann (Independent Scholar) > Published on H-FedHist (February, 2021) > Commissioned by Caryn E. Neumann > > The Fighting McCooks were the most prominent military family during > the Civil War. They were loyal Union men from the Midwest who > volunteered to serve and sometimes died in combat. It is this > ordinariness that grabbed the public's attention rather than any > exceptional event. After the war, the brothers and cousins, including > Major General Alexander McCook, were soon forgotten. Wayne Fanebust, > who wrote a biography of Major General McCook, turns his attention to > two of the war dead in this book. > > Brigadier General Robert L. McCook of Ohio was a Cincinnati lawyer > who raised the entirely German-born 9th Ohio Infantry regiment. The > men elected him to serve as colonel. Unlike many political colonels, > McCook proved quite competent and quite brave. He and his men helped > push the Confederacy out of western Virginia, leading to the > formation of the state of West Virginia. McCook and the 9th Ohio were > sent to Kentucky to block any Confederate incursions into the state. > At the Battle of Mill Spring, McCook led a bayonet charge that > resulted in the death of Confederate general Felix Zollicoffer. Now a > war hero, McCook gained promotion in 1862 to brigadier general in > command of the 3rd Brigade of Major General George Thomas. Mostly, > McCook and his men marched while getting into the occasional fight > with other Union troops. While marching toward Tennessee in August > 1862, McCook picked up dysentery, the great killer of soldiers. He > rode in an open carriage lying on a bed. The carriage was overtaken > by Rebel cavalry, who mortally wounded McCook after he attempted to > surrender. The Union viewed his death as a cowardly assassination. > > McCook's killing was quickly laid at the feet of Captain Frank > Gurley, who led guerrilla cavalry operations against the Union, > raiding and destroying property. Fanebust includes a chapter on > Gurley, who was captured by the Union in October 1863 and nearly > lynched for killing McCook. Fanebust presents Gurley as a man who > lived "quietly and peacefully" into old age and was known to fellow > Southerners as a "good man and good citizen" (p. 99). He laments that > Union men put Gurley through mental anguish by jailing and trying to > execute him for McCook's murder. However, Fanebust notes earlier that > Gurley helped organize the Ku Klux Klan in Madison County, Alabama > (p. 95). This is not a man viewed by Black Southerners as a good and > peaceful. Fanebust ignores the viewpoints of African Americans and > while this does not seriously weaken the book, it does lead to some > odd interpretations. A man willing to use violence to terrorize Black > people is exactly the sort of bad character who would shoot a > defenseless McCook. Fanebust's lack of historical knowledge with > respect to African Americans is evident in both the long list of > sources and his interpretation of events. His description of the > impact of President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation only > addresses the white viewpoint. > > Colonel Daniel McCook Jr., brother of Robert, studied law at the firm > of Lincoln's future secretary of war, Edwin M. Stanton. He left Ohio > for Kansas to form a law practice with William T. Sherman in 1859. At > the outset of the Civil War, McCook joined the Union. He received a > commission as a captain and raised the Leavenworth State Guard, part > of the 1st Kansas Infantry. McCook served bravely at Shiloh and > Chickamauga. He died in June 1864 while leading his men in a futile > assault up Kennesaw Mountain on the order of his former law partner, > General Sherman. In later years, Sherman would lament that he got his > friend killed. > > Fanebust's account of the McCooks is well written and, mostly, well > researched. It is likely to appeal to scholars interested in > Midwestern and Ohio history as well as Civil War buffs. It is a good > complement to Charles Whalen and Barbara Whalen's 2006 book on the > entire family of Fighting McCooks. > > Citation: Ellen Neumann. Review of Fanebust, Wayne, _Brigadier > General Robert L. McCook and Colonel Daniel McCook, Jr.: A Union Army > Dual Biography_. H-FedHist, H-Net Reviews. February, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55941 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#6428): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/6428 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/80665490/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
