“The Murder of General
Robert L. M’Cook”
Harper’s Weekly, August 23,
1862, p. 530
We illustrate on page
541 the brutal and coldblooded murder of General Robert
L. M’Cook, who was assassinated by miscreants
calling themselves guerillas, near Salem, Alabama, on
5th instant. The correspondent of the Philadelphia
Press thus recounts the outrage:
“Nashville, August 7
Midnight
The city is in a perfect
uproar of excitement over the details of the death of
the brave General Robert L. M’Cook, of Ohio. His
remains arrived in town tonight, and are now lying at
the Commercial Hotel.
I write this at
midnight, and therefore am unable to send you as full
particulars as I could wish. On Tuesday last General
Robert L. M’Cook, who was at the time very sick
was in an ambulance near Salem, Alabama, on his way to
his brigade. The ambulance was traveling over the usual
military road, and about ten o’clock in the
morning it arrived at a plantation where there was an
abundance of water. After refreshing themselves they
passed on with the wounded General. Intelligence of his
whereabouts and condition was quickly spread, it is
supposed; for before the ambulance had proceeded three
miles the driver discovered that he was pursued by
guerillas.
It was impossible to
think of flight, and General M’Cook’s
condition prohibited any idea of rescuing him. The
guerilla leader ordered the ambulance to stop, the
assassins at the same time surrounding it. The vehicle
was then upset, and the sick officer turned into the
road. While on his knees, helpless and sick, he was
fired at by a ruffian, and shot through the side.
The wound was fatal,
General M’Cook surviving it but a few hours. He
bore his sufferings heroically, and to the last
manifested an undaunted spirit. His last words were
“Tell Aleck (alluding to his brother, general
Alexander M’Dowell M’Cook) and the rest
that I have tried to live like a man and do my
duty.”
When the news of the
murder became known among the camps the excitement was
intense. The Ninth Ohio, M’Cook’s own
regiment, on learning of the assassination, marched
back to the scene of the occurrence, burned every house
in the neighborhood and laid waste the lands. Several
men who were implicated in the murder were taken out
and hung to trees by the infuriated
soldiery.”
General Robert
M’Cook was one of seven brothers who are or were
in the Union service. One of them was killed at Bull
Run. Another, the eldest, is General Alexander
M’Dowell M’Cook, one of the most
distinguished officers in the West. The father of these
gallant men is a paymaster in General Buell’s
army. The wanton murder of General Robert M’Cook
has roused the West to a pitch of ungovernable fury.
