James B. McPherson

James B. McPherson

Clyde-born Union general, first in West Point's class of 1853, who commanded the Army of the Tennessee and was killed in the Battle of Atlanta on July 22, 1864.

Born November 14, 1828, Hamer's Corners (now Clyde); a log house whose site Howe placed inside today's McPherson Cemetery
Died July 22, 1864, east of Atlanta, during the Battle of Atlanta

Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born: November 14, 1828, Hamer's Corners (now Clyde); a log house whose site Howe placed inside today's McPherson Cemetery (Sandusky County) source
Died: July 22, 1864, east of Atlanta, during the Battle of Atlanta source
Buried: McPherson Cemetery (then Evergreen Cemetery), Clyde, Section 1, Lot 161, Space 4 (Sandusky County) source
Also known as: James B. McPherson, General McPherson
Education: Norwalk Academy, Norwalk, OH
: US Military Academy, West Point, NY, 1849-1853, graduate, first in class
Known as: Military

Life story

James Birdseye McPherson was born in 1828 near Clyde, Ohio. He attended Norwalk Academy before West Point, where he graduated first in the class of 1853, ahead of Sheridan, Schofield and Hood.

He joined the Corps of Engineers and worked on harbor defenses in New York and on the fortifications at Alcatraz. In 1859 he got engaged to Emily Hoffman of Baltimore, but the war postponed the wedding.

He rose from captain in 1861 to major general in 1862, commanded the XVII Corps at Vicksburg, and then the Army of the Tennessee under Sherman in the Atlanta campaign.

He was killed on July 22, 1864, during the Battle of Atlanta, the second-highest-ranking Union officer killed in the war. Hood, who had been his friend at West Point, wrote with respect about him. He is buried in Clyde.

Ohio ties

Clyde (Hamer's Corners) (1828-about 1841)
birthplace and boyhood home; his father ran a blacksmith shop while clearing a farm Sandusky County · source
Green Springs (about 1841-1849)
clerk in a store from age 13, after his father's death Sandusky County · source
Norwalk (Norwalk Academy) (two years before 1849)
student Huron County · source
Clyde (300 E. McPherson Highway) (to 1861)
family home (built 1831), where he spent an evening with his mother, brothers, sister and grandmother in 1861; NRHP 1974, now run by the Clyde Heritage League Sandusky County · source
Clyde (McPherson Cemetery) (1864-present)
grave (buried July 29, 1864) and 1881 monument Sandusky County · source
US 20 across northern Ohio (1941-present)
named the James B. McPherson / General McPherson Highway Sandusky County · source

Timeline

1828 Born November 14 at Hamer's Corners, now Clyde, in Sandusky County. source
1841 After his father died, the 13-year-old went to work in a store at Green Springs to help his mother support the family. source
1853 Graduated first in his West Point class of 52, which included Philip Sheridan, John M. Schofield and John B. Hood. source
1857 Became superintending engineer for the defenses of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, where in 1859 he met his fiancee, Emily Hoffman of Baltimore. source
1862 Served as Grant's chief engineer at Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Shiloh, the siege of Corinth and Iuka, and was made brigadier general of volunteers on May 15. source
1863 Commanded the 17th Corps through the Vicksburg campaign and was made a brigadier general in the Regular Army in August. source
1864 Took command of the Army of the Tennessee on March 12, succeeding Sherman. source
1864 Killed July 22 at the Battle of Atlanta when he rode into Confederate skirmishers and was shot as he turned his horse to escape. source
1864 Buried July 29 in Clyde, in the cemetery later renamed for him. source
1864 His grandmother wrote to Grant from Clyde on August 5, and Grant replied that her bereavement could not exceed his own. source
1866 Fort McPherson near Atlanta was named for him on February 20. source
1868 Clyde's Evergreen Cemetery was renamed McPherson Cemetery on December 15. source
1876 An equestrian statue of him was erected in October at McPherson Square in Washington. source
1881 The monument over his Clyde grave was dedicated on July 22, the anniversary of his death, with a speech by Rutherford B. Hayes and with Sherman among the officers present. source
1881 The monument, by sculptor Louis Rebisso, was erected over the grave by veterans of his command, the Army of the Tennessee. source
1891 His portrait appeared on the 1891 $2 Treasury note. source
1941 US 20 was dedicated as the James B. McPherson Highway on August 9. source
1974 The Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson House at 300 E. McPherson Highway, Clyde, was listed on the National Register on October 18. source

What James is known for

Commander of the Union Army of the Tennessee
Killed at the Battle of Atlanta 1864-07-22

Stories

A letter from his grandmother

When McPherson's body came home to Clyde in 1864, his aged grandmother read in the papers that Grant had gone into his tent and wept like a child at the news. On August 5 she wrote to Grant with a trembling hand. She told him the remains had been brought to the same parlor where the general had spent a cheerful evening in 1861 with his widowed mother, two brothers, sister and grandmother, leaving at six the next morning. The funeral was held in his mother's orchard, she wrote, and he lay on a rise a few rods away, near his father's grave and scarcely half a mile from where he was born. Grant answered that McPherson had been one of his military family, that to know him was to love him, and that her bereavement was great but could not exceed his own.

Source

'McPherson or revenge'

On July 22, 1864, Hood's Confederates struck the left flank of Sherman's army east of Atlanta while McPherson was in conference with Sherman. McPherson ordered a gap between two corps closed and rode toward the threatened point, passing between columns, until he came on a Confederate skirmish line that called on him to halt. He turned toward the woods and a volley followed him; a ball passed through his right lung and broke his spine, and his horse carried him into the woods before he fell. About an hour later George Reynolds, a wounded private of the 15th Iowa, found him still alive but unable to speak, moistened his lips from his canteen and stayed until he died. When word spread that he had fallen or been captured, the Army of the Tennessee took up the cry 'McPherson or revenge.' His body was laid in Sherman's headquarters, where Sherman wept as he gave orders for the battle still going on.

Source

The monument at Clyde

Clyde buried McPherson in its Evergreen Cemetery a week after his death, and on December 15, 1868 the cemetery was renamed McPherson Cemetery. On July 22, 1881, the seventeenth anniversary of his death, a monument over his grave was dedicated there. Former President Rutherford B. Hayes gave the dedication speech. Many Civil War officers came, among them William T. Sherman, who had commanded McPherson in the Atlanta campaign. Other memorials followed far from Clyde: Fort McPherson in Georgia, McPherson Square in Washington, towns and counties in Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota, and in 1941 the McPherson Highway, US 20, across northern Ohio.

Source

Honors and things named for them

McPherson Square, Washington, DC
Fort McPherson, Atlanta
McPherson County, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota

Named for James B. McPherson

McPherson Cemetery (renamed from Evergreen Cemetery, December 15, 1868) (Clyde, Sandusky County) source
General McPherson Highway (US 20 across northern Ohio; Ohio Revised Code 5533.04) (Williams to Ashtabula counties, Sandusky County) source
McPherson Middle School (Clyde, Sandusky County) source
McPherson, Kansas; McPherson counties in Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota; Fort McPherson, Georgia; McPherson Square, Washington, D.C. (various) source

Family

fiancee: Emily Hoffman

Sites to know

Homes, graves, markers, museums and monuments; the numbered ones are on the map.

1 McPherson grave and monument (Louis Rebisso, dedicated 1881), McPherson Cemetery, Section 1, Lot 161
Clyde, McPherson Highway and Maple Street Sandusky County · source
2 Ohio historical marker 3-72, McPherson Cemetery
Clyde, McPherson and Maple Street Sandusky County · source
3 Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson House (built 1831; NRHP 1974), run by the Clyde Heritage League
Clyde, 300 E. McPherson Highway (US 20 at SR 101) Sandusky County · source
4 Ohio historical marker 9-72, General James Birdseye McPherson
Clyde, 300 E. McPherson Highway Sandusky County · source
Equestrian statue, McPherson Square (1876)
Washington, D.C. source

Places in Ohio to see

McPherson Cemetery (grave)
McPherson Hwy at E Maple St, Clyde, Sandusky County ZIP 43410 · Clyde · Sandusky County

Ohio places

Where James B. McPherson was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Born: Clyde, Sandusky County ZIP 43410 · Clyde · Sandusky County
Buried: Clyde, Sandusky County (McPherson Cemetery (formerly Evergreen), McPherson Hwy at E Maple St) ZIP 43410 · Clyde · Sandusky County

Myths and corrections

Things often said about James B. McPherson, and what the record shows.

Often said McPherson was the highest-ranking Union officer killed in the Civil War (as the Clyde state marker says, adding 'youngest').

The record Wikipedia ranks him second, after Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick, killed in May 1864, while noting that Sedgwick never commanded an army; McPherson was killed while commanding the Army of the Tennessee. No source found supports 'youngest'. source

Often said Grant gave McPherson command of the Army of the Tennessee early in the war.

The record He commanded a corps under Grant in 1862-63 and took over the Army of the Tennessee only on March 12, 1864, when Sherman moved up to command in the West. source

Often said McPherson was born in the house at 300 E. McPherson Highway, where the state marker stands.

The record The house was built in 1831, three years after his birth. Howe's 1888 Historical Collections says he was born in a log house, and that its site and his father's blacksmith shop lay within the cemetery where he is buried; his grandmother's 1864 letter put his grave half a mile from his birthplace. The exact birth site is uncertain. source

Disputed: He is often called the highest-ranking Union officer killed in the Civil War. Wikipedia calls him the second-highest, and the ranking varies by how officers such as Sedgwick are counted.

Documents

Primary records: patents, letters, court and government files, nominations and old county histories, each at the archive that holds it.

Henry Howe, 'Historical Collections of Ohio', vol. 3 (1891), Sandusky County section on McPherson, including his grandmother's August 5, 1864 letter to Grant and Grant's reply 1891, Internet Archive
War of the Rebellion: Official Records, Series I, Vol. 38, Part 3 (Atlanta campaign reports, May 1-September 8, 1864) 1891, Cornell University Library via HathiTrust
War of the Rebellion: Official Records, Series I, Vol. 38, Part 5 (Atlanta campaign correspondence, May 1-September 8, 1864) 1891, Cornell University Library via HathiTrust
Ohio Revised Code 5533.04, designating US 20 the General McPherson highway (orig. 1973) 1973, Ohio Legislative Service Commission

Pictures

Free to use with the credit shown. Select a picture for the original and its license.

Print of Gen. McPherson in uniform with a sword. Earthworks and mountain in the background. "Jas. B. McPherson...
Public domain
No known restrictions
Small card with photographs of seven Union officers. Maj. Gen. G.H. Thomas, J. McPherson, O.O. Howard, H.J. Ki...
Public domain
Title: Army of the West: Schofield, Thomas, Slocum, McPherson, Sherman, Howard, and Rousseau Physical descript...
Public domain
Title: Army of the West: Schofield, Thomas, Slocum, McPherson, Sherman, Howard, and Rousseau Physical descript...
Public domain
Title: Army of the West: Schofield, Thomas, Slocum, McPherson, Sherman, Howard, and Rousseau Physical descript...
Public domain
Title: Army of the West: Schofield, Thomas, Slocum, McPherson, Sherman, Howard, and Rousseau Physical descript...
Public domain
Title: Army of the West: Schofield, Thomas, Slocum, McPherson, Sherman, Howard, and Rousseau Physical descript...
Public domain
The Battle of Atlanta, chromolithograph by Kurz & Allison, also showing the death of Union general James M...
Public domain
James Birdseye McPherson (1828–1864) was a Major General in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He w...
Public domain
Public domain
Public domain