View source for Irvin McDowell

{{Short description|American army officer (1818–1885)}}
{{redirect|General McDowell}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2023}}
{{Use American English|date=June 2022}}
{{Infobox military person
|name=Irvin McDowell
|birth_date= {{birth date|1818|10|15}}
|death_date= {{death date and age|1885|5|4|1818|10|15}}
|birth_place=[[Columbus, Ohio]], U.S.
|death_place=[[San Francisco]], California, U.S.
|placeofburial= [[San Francisco National Cemetery]], [[Presidio of San Francisco]]
|placeofburial_label= Place of burial
|image=Portrait of Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell, officer of the Federal Army.jpg
|caption= Photo of McDowell taken during the American Civil War
|nickname=
|allegiance= United States
|branch= {{Tree list}}
* [[United States Army]]
** [[Union Army]]
{{Tree list/end}}
|serviceyears=1838–1882
|rank=[[Major general (United States)|Major general]]
|commands={{ubl|[[Army of Northeastern Virginia]]|[[I Corps (Union Army)|I Corps]], [[Army of the Potomac]]|[[III Corps (Union Army)|III Corps]], [[Army of Virginia]]|[[Department of the Pacific]]|[[Department of California]]|[[Department of the West]]}}
|unit=
|battles={{Tree list}}
* [[Mexican–American War]]
**[[Battle of Buena Vista]]
* [[American Civil War]]
** [[Battle of Fairfax Court House (June 1861)|Battle of Fairfax Courthouse]]
** [[Battle of Vienna, Virginia]]
** [[Battle of Arlington Mills]]
** [[Battle of Blackburn's Ford]]
** [[First Battle of Bull Run]]
** [[Second Battle of Bull Run]]
{{Tree list/end}}
|awards=
|relations=
|laterwork= Park Commissioner, [[San Francisco]]
}}
'''Irvin McDowell''' (October 15, 1818&nbsp;– May 4, 1885)<ref>Dupuy, p. 468; Eicher, p. 378.</ref> was an American [[United States Army|army officer]].  He is best known for his defeat in the [[First Battle of Bull Run]], the first large-scale battle of the [[American Civil War]]. In 1862, he was given command of the [[I Corps (Union Army)|I Corps]] of the [[Army of the Potomac]]. He fought unsuccessfully against [[Stonewall Jackson|Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson]]'s troops during the [[Jackson's Valley Campaign|Valley Campaign of 1862]] and was blamed for contributing to the defeat of United States troops at the [[Second Battle of Bull Run]] in August.

==Early life==
McDowell was born in [[Columbus, Ohio]], son of [[Abram Irvin McDowell]] and Eliza Seldon McDowell, and was of English and Scots-Irish descent.<ref name=buckeye>{{Cite web |url=http://landofthebuckeye.net/p918.htm#i2700 |title=Land of the Buckeye genealogy website |access-date=August 17, 2010 |archive-date=June 3, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190603192852/http://landofthebuckeye.net/p918.htm#i2700 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He was a cousin-in-law of [[John Buford]],<ref name=Eicher105>Eicher, pp. 105–106.</ref> and his brother, [[John Adair McDowell (colonel)|John Adair McDowell]], served as the first colonel of the [[6th Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment]] during the Civil War.<ref name=buckeye/>

McDowell initially attended the College de Troyes in [[July Monarchy|France]] before graduating from the [[United States Military Academy]] in 1838, where one of his classmates was [[P. G. T. Beauregard]], his future adversary at First Bull Run. He was commissioned a [[second lieutenant#United States|second lieutenant]] and posted to the 1st U.S. Artillery. McDowell served as a [[military tactics|tactics]] instructor at West Point before becoming [[aide-de-camp]] to General [[John E. Wool]] during the [[Mexican–American War]]. He was [[brevet (military)|brevetted]] captain at [[Battle of Buena Vista|Buena Vista]] and served in the Adjutant General's department after the war. While in that department, he was promoted to major on May 31, 1856.<ref name=Eicher105 />

Between 1848 and 1861, McDowell generally served as a staff officer to higher-ranking military leaders and developed experience in logistics and supply. He developed a close friendship with General [[Winfield Scott]], while serving on his staff. He also served under future Confederate general [[Joseph E. Johnston]].<ref>"[http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=262 Irvin McDowell]", Ohio History Central; accesses 2011.08.30.</ref>

==Civil War==
[[File:GeorgeMcClellanandIrwinMcDowell.jpg|thumb|left|General Irvin McDowell (left) with General George B. McClellan]]
McDowell was promoted to [[Brigadier general (United States)|brigadier general]] in the [[Regular Army (United States)|regular army]] on May 14, 1861, and was given command of the [[Army of Northeastern Virginia]] on May 27. The promotion was partly because of the influence of his mentor, [[United States Secretary of the Treasury|Treasury Secretary]] [[Salmon P. Chase]]. Although McDowell knew that his troops were inexperienced and unready and protested that he was a supply officer, not a field commander, pressure from the [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] [[politician]]s forced him to launch a premature offensive against [[Confederate States Army|Confederate]] forces in [[Northern Virginia]]. His strategy during the [[First Battle of Bull Run]] was imaginative but ambitiously complex, and his troops were not experienced enough to carry it out effectively, resulting in an embarrassing rout.

After the defeat at Bull Run, [[Major general (United States)|Major General]] [[George B. McClellan]] was placed in command of the new [[Union Army]] defending Washington, the [[Army of the Potomac]]. McDowell became a division commander in the Army of the Potomac. On March 14, 1862, President Lincoln issued an order forming the army into corps, and McDowell got command of the [[I Corps (Union Army)|I Corps]] as well as a promotion to major general of volunteers. When the army set off for the Virginia Peninsula in April, McDowell's command was detached for duty in the Rappahannock area out of concern over Stonewall Jackson's activities in the Shenandoah Valley (one division was later sent down to the Peninsula).

Eventually, the three independent commands of Generals McDowell, [[John C. Frémont]], and [[Nathaniel P. Banks]] were combined into Major General [[John Pope (general)|John Pope's]] [[Army of Virginia]] and McDowell led the [[I Corps (Union Army)|III Corps]] of that army. Because of his actions at [[Battle of Cedar Mountain|Cedar Mountain]], McDowell was eventually brevetted [[Major general (United States)|major general]] in the regular army; however, he was blamed for the subsequent disaster at [[Second Battle of Bull Run|Second Bull Run]]. McDowell was also widely despised by his own troops, who believed him to be in cahoots with the enemy. He escaped culpability by testifying against Major General [[Fitz John Porter]], whom Pope [[Court-martial of Fitz John Porter|court-martialed for alleged insubordination]] in that battle. Pope and McDowell did not like each other, but McDowell tolerated serving under him with the full knowledge that he himself would remain a general after the war was over while Pope would revert to the rank of colonel. Despite his formal escape, McDowell received no new assignments for the next two years.

==Later service and postbellum career==
In July 1864, McDowell was given command of the [[Department of the Pacific]]. He later commanded the [[Department of California]] from July 27, 1865, to March 31, 1868; briefly commanded the [[Fourth Military Department]]; then commanded the [[Department of the East]] from July 16, 1868, to December 16, 1872. On November 25, 1872, he was promoted to major general. On December 16, 1872, McDowell succeeded General [[George G. Meade]] as commander of the [[Military Division of the South]] and remained until June 30, 1876. From July 1, 1876, he was commander of the [[Military Division of the Pacific|Division of the Pacific]]. In 1882, Congress imposed a mandatory retirement age of 64 for military officers, and McDowell retired on October 14 of that year.

In 1879, when a board of review commissioned by [[President of the United States|President]] [[Rutherford B. Hayes]] issued its report recommending a [[pardon]] for Fitz John Porter, it attributed much of the loss of the Second Battle of Bull Run to McDowell. In the report, he was depicted as indecisive, uncommunicative, and inept, repeatedly failing to answer Porter's requests for information, failing to forward intelligence of [[James Longstreet|Longstreet]]'s positioning to Pope, and neglecting to take command of the left wing of the Union Army as was his duty under the [[Articles of War]].

Following his retirement from the army, General McDowell exercised his fondness for landscape gardening, serving as Park Commissioner of [[San Francisco, California|San Francisco]], [[California]] until his death from [[heart attack]] on May 4, 1885. In this capacity, he constructed a park in the neglected reservation of the [[Presidio of San Francisco|Presidio]], laying out drives that commanded views of the [[Golden Gate]]. He is buried in [[San Francisco National Cemetery]] in the Presidio of San Francisco.

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|American Civil War}}
* [[List of American Civil War generals (Union)]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==References==
* Dupuy, Trevor N., Curt Johnson, and David L. Bongard. ''The [[Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography]]''. New York: HarperCollins, 1992. {{ISBN|978-0-06-270015-5}}.
* Eicher, John H., and [[David J. Eicher]]. ''Civil War High Commands''. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001. {{ISBN|0-8047-3641-3}}.
* Warner, Ezra J. ''Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders''. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1964. {{ISBN|0-8071-0822-7}}.
* Simione Jr., Frank and Gene Schmiel, "Searching for Irvin McDowell: The Civil War's Forgotten General," Savas-Beatie, 2023. ISBN 978-1-61121-620-2

==External links==
* {{commons category-inline}}

{{S-start}}
{{S-mil}}
{{Succession box| title= Commander of the [[Army of Northeastern Virginia]]| before=none| after=[[George B. McClellan]]| years=May 27, 1861 – July 25, 1861}}
{{Succession box| title= Commander of the [[I Corps (Union Army)|I Corps]] ([[Army of the Potomac]])| before=none| after=Reorganized as III Corps (Army of Virginia) | years=March 13, 1862 – April 4, 1862}}
{{Succession box| title= Commander of the [[I Corps (Union Army)|III Corps]] ([[Army of Virginia]])| before=Himself as Commander of I Corps (Army of the Potomac)| after=[[James B. Ricketts]]| years=June 26, 1862 – September 5, 1862}}
{{S-end}}

{{American Civil War|Leaders}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:McDowell, Irvin}}
[[Category:1818 births]]
[[Category:1885 deaths]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Columbus, Ohio]]
[[Category:American expatriates in France]]
[[Category:Union army generals]]
[[Category:American military personnel of the Mexican–American War]]
[[Category:American people of English descent]]
[[Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent]]
[[Category:People of California in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:People of Ohio in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:United States Military Academy alumni]]
[[Category:Burials at San Francisco National Cemetery]]
[[Category:Military personnel from San Francisco]]