A hero in the family

He was the Union general with the funny middle name: Birdseye. General James Birdseye McPherson. The second-highest ranking Union officer killed in battle. Our common ancestor was William McPherson, born in Inverness, Scotland, in 1612. At MacPherson Clan gatherings, he is simply referred to as The General.

Prior to the Civil

War he helped build

Fort Alcatraz and became engaged to

Emily Hoffman. A planned wedding was postponed due to the outbreak of the war. During the war, he served under Generals Grant and Sherman at the battles of Vicksburg and Shiloh. On March 12, 1864, he was promoted to major general, assuming command of the Army of the Tennessee (named for the river, not the state). His requested leave to marry Emily was denied by Sherman, who needed him for the Atlanta campaign.

On July 22, 1864, during the siege of Atlanta, he was riding with his aide from one Union encampment to another when a skirmish line of Confederates appeared and ordered him to halt and surrender. Instead, he doffed his hat, turned his horse around to flee but was mortally wounded. When the rebels asked the aide for the identity of the man they shot, he replied, “General James McPherson. You have just killed the best man in our army.”

When Sherman learned of his death, he cried openly. John Bell Hood, his Confederate adversary, boyhood friend and fellow graduate of West Point wrote of his “admiration and gratitude for his [McPherson’s] conduct toward our people in the vicinity of Vicksburg. His consideration and kind treatment of them stood in bright contrast to the course pursued by many federal officers.”

Emily never recovered from his death, never married and lived a quiet and lonely life until her death in 1891. Another victim of that ghastly and terrible conflict.

JOHN McPHERSON

Searcy