Alexander McDowell McCook photograph

Major General Alexander McDowell McCook (1831-1903) is shown in this 3.8 by 6.25- inch (9.77 by 15.88 cm) carte de visite. Alexander was born in Columbiana County to Daniel and Martha Latimer McCook and was a member of the Fighting McCooks. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1852. During the Civil War, he organized the 1st Ohio Volunteer Infantry (O.V.I.) regiment. Daniel McCook, Sr. and his eight sons, together with his brother John McCook and his five sons, fought in the Civil War. Daniel (1798-1863) and John (1806-1865) were born in Pennsylvania, and moved to Lisbon in Columbiana County, Ohio in 1826. Daniel subsequently moved to Carrollton, where he served as Carroll County's first clerk of the court of common pleas. John settled in Steubenville, where he practiced medicine. When President Lincoln made the first call for volunteers, 63-year-old Daniel Sr. answered and his sons and relatives followed. Daniel Sr., Daniel Jr., Robert Latimer, and Charles Morris McCook were killed in the war. Cartes-de-visite, photographic portraits on cardboard, were popular in the late nineteenth century. Some were used as calling cards, others were sold and traded as collectibles