Thursday, June 27, 2013

Thomas Jefferson McKean

WEST POINTER AND CIVIL ENGINEER

Another soldier by profession was Thomas Jefferson McKean, born in Burlington, Pa., August 21, 1810. He was graduated from the Military Academy in 1831 and was assigned to the Fourth Infantry. In 1834 he resigned to engage in engineering. He became engineer-in-chief of the “Ramshorn” railroad, between Keokuk and Dubuque. During the Florida war he served as adjutant of the First Pennsylvania Volunteers. He served in the Mexican war as a private and was wounded at Cherubusco. Brevetted second-lieutenant, he resigned and returned to engineering. He became paymaster in the regular army in 1861, and in November of that year was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers. He served in the Mississippi campaign in the spring of 1862 and participated in the battle of Corinth. In 1863 he commanded the northeast district of Missouri. In 1864 he was in command in Kansas, on the Gulf and in Western Florida. He was brevetted major-general in March, 1865, and in August of that year was mustered out. He then engaged in farming near Marion, Iowa. In 1868 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention. In 1869 he declined a pension agency tendered him by President Grant. He died in Marion, April 19, 1870.

SOURCE: Johnson Brigham, Iowa: Its History and Its Foremost Citizens, Volume 1, p. 376-7

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