Nathaniel McLean

Nathaniel Collins McLean (February 2, 1815 – January 4, 1905), was a lawyer, farmer, and Union general during the American Civil War. He was appointed colonel of the 75th Ohio Infantry Regiment in 1861 and led the regiment in several battles before commanding a brigade. During the Second Battle of Bull Run, his brigade's determined defense of Chinn Ridge probably saved the Union Army from a disaster. He led a brigade at the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863, for a month in the Atlanta campaign in 1864, and in the Carolina campaign in 1865. After the war, he returned to his law practice in Cincinnati, moved to Minnesota, and moved again to New York where he died. Early life and career Born in Warren County, Ohio, Nathaniel McLean was a son of John McLean, an 1856 and 1860 Republican presidential candidate and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States known as "the politician of the Supreme Court". McLean was well educated, and graduated from Augusta College in Kentucky at the age of sixteen. He then attended Harvard College and received his J.D. He was married in 1838 to Caroline Thew Burnett, the daughter of a Cincinnati judge. While practicing law, he fell ill, and he was advised to travel to Europe and attempt to regain his health. Shortly after his trip, his wife died. He remarried in 1858 to Mary Louise Thompson from Louisville, Kentucky. Civil War service At the beginning of the Civil War, McLean organized the 75th Ohio Infantry Regiment under authority from Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont and became its colonel September 18, 1861. McLean, with Lieutenant-Colonel R.A. Constable and Major Robert Reily, organized and trained the 75th in Wyoming, Ohio, (north of Cincinnati) at Camp John McLean, which he of course named after his father. The regiment was organized into a brigade commanded by Brig. Gen. Robert Milroy and assigned to duty in western Virginia under Frémont and the Mountain Department.