Eliakim P. Scammon | |
---|---|
Born |
Whitefield, Maine |
December 27, 1816
Died | December 7, 1894 New York City, New York |
(aged 77)
Place of burial | Calvary Cemetery, Queens, New York |
Allegiance |
United States of America Union |
Service/branch |
United States Army Union Army |
Years of service | 1837–1856, 1861–1865 |
Rank | Brigadier General |
Commands held | Kanawha Division |
Battles/wars | |
Other work | Professor |
Seminole Wars
Mexican-American War
American Civil War
Eliakim Parker Scammon (December 27, 1816 – December 7, 1894) was a career officer in the United States Army, serving as a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Scammon, a native of Whitefield, Maine, was appointed from his district to the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, graduating 9th in the Class of 1837. He remained at West Point after graduation, serving as Assistant Professor of Mathematics from August 1837 to September 1838. Due to his ranking and abilities, he was selected as one of the original officers in the newly created U.S. Army Corps of Topographic Engineers in 1838. He served in the Seminole Wars and the Mexican-American War, serving under Winfield Scott in the Army of Occupation. He was elevated to captain in 1853 and assigned to various surveying assignments, but was dismissed from the service on June 4, 1856.
He moved to Ohio and became Professor of Mathematics at Mount Saint Mary's College, and then was President and Professor of Mathematics, Polytechnic College of the Catholic Institute in Cincinnati. He had converted to Catholicism in 1846.
With the outbreak of the Civil War, Scammon offered his services to William Dennison, the Governor of Ohio in June 1861 and was appointed as Colonel of the 23rd Ohio Infantry, commanding two men who would later become Presidents, Rutherford B. Hayes and William McKinley. The regiment saw action in western Virginia and then in the northern part of the state.