James and John McIntosh,

Generals of The Army

James McQueen McIntosh and John Baillie McIntosh were brothers-in-arms. James, born in Florida in 1828, graduated from West Point in 1849 -- at the bottom of his class. He first served with the U.S. Army's infantry, and was on frontier duty with the U.S. Cavalry when the Civil War broke out. 

Brother John, born in 1829, had seen military service in the Navy during the Mexican War. He was strictly a civilian -- a businessman in New Jersey --- when the Civil War swept them both up. 

Both brothers would reach the rank of general when the war was over. 

James served in the western theater, while John, also in the cavalry branch, served in the eastern. John, in fact, collected quite a few major-battle starts. He was at Seven Days near Richmond, at South Mountain and Antietam in Maryland, at Chancellorsville in Virginia again, and at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania; then it was back to Virginia for Petersburg, Shenandoah Valley, and Third Winchester. 

John did not survive the war entirely unscathed. After Gettysburg in 1863, he was injured when his horse fell, but a quiet cavalry command in the Washington defenses helped him to recuperate. At Winchester in September 1864 he lost a leg. 

His brother James, had experienced one major battle much earlier -- at Pea Ridge, Arkansas, on March 7, 1862. James McIntosh, the West Pointer, fell at Pea Ridge, shot in the heart while leading the mounted troops of Ben McCulloch's Division -- which had been fighting Union troops in Arkansas. James, the brother of Union general John McIntosh, had been a Confederate general.  

It is said that John decided to join up on the Union side when his brother James, joined the Confederacy. They never met in combat. 

And there you have it.................

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