Thousands of men suffered and died in the massive orgy of gunfire and death that historians call the Civil War. Most have received little or no recognition for their service and sacrifice. On the other hand, the battle deaths of brothers Robert L. and Daniel McCook, Jr., from Ohio, got the full attention of an aroused nation, and the news media.

The dramatic battlefield deaths of brother Union Army commanders Robert L. McCook and Daniel McCook, Jr.--members of a prominent Ohio family known as ""the Fighting McCooks""--drew the full attention of the news media and a war-weary nation. A veteran of Shiloh and Chickamauga, Colonel Daniel McCook was mortally wounded while leading his brigade in a reckless assault up Kennesaw Mountain in June 1864, on the orders of his friend and former law partner General William Tecumseh Sherman. Brigadier General Robert L. McCook distinguished himself in the western Virginia campaign before he was shot by a Rebel while riding in an ambulance in the summer of 1862. His death, in what was an apparent ambush, set off a firestorm of outrage throughout the North.