James B. McPherson photographed by Mathew Brady
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JAMES BIRDSEYE McPHERSON
November 14, 1828 • July 22, 1864
- Birthplace: Green Creek Township, Sandusky County, Ohio (now Clyde, Ohio).
- Parents: William McPherson and Cynthia Russell.
- 1849: Entered the United States Military Academy at West Point.
- 1853: Graduated at the head of his class and assigned to the corps of engineers as brevet lieutenant. He decided to remain at the academy for one more year as an assistant instructor in practical engineering.
- Prior to 1861: Assigned to duty in connection with river and harbor improvements and seacoast fortifications, beginning on the Atlantic coast and later, the Pacific.
- December 18, 1854: Promoted to second lieutenant.
- December 13, 1858: Promoted to first lieutenan.
- August 6, 1861: Promoted to captain.
- May 15, 1862: Promoted to brigadier-general of volunteers.
- August 1st, 1863: Promoted to brigadier-general in the regular army.
- January 1863: McPherson received command of the XVII Army Corps and served throughout the entire Vicksburg campaign, participating in Sherman's raid to Meridian. McPherson took over Sherman's Army of the Tennessee, assuming command at Huntsville, Alabama on March 26th 1864.
- McPherson had just left Sherman's headquarters where he received orders to rejoin his troops when he encountered some Confederate soldiers who had slipped thru his XVI and XVII Corps and was shot and killed. His death was one of the heaviest individual losses ever suffered by the Union forces.
- Age at death: 35 years, 8 months.
- Place of death: Outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia.
- Burial place: McPherson Cemetery in Clyde, Ohio.
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