COX, JACOB DOLSON (1828-1900), American general, political leader and educationalist, was born on Oct. 27, 1828 in Montreal, Canada. He was reared in New York city, and studied in a law office in 1842-44. Working in a broker's office in he came under the influence of Charles G. Finney, whose daughter he afterwards married. In New York city he also prepared him self for the ministry. He graduated at Oberlin college in 1851, having given up his theological studies in rebellion against Finney's dogmatism.
In 1851-53 he was superintendent of schools at Warren (0.) ; in 1853 was admitted to the Ohio bar, being at that time an anti slavery Whig; and in 1859 was elected to the State senate. Appointed by Governor Dennison one of three brigadiers general of militia in 186o, he studied tactics, strategy and military history.
He raised troops for the Union service in 1861, enlisted himself in spite of poor health and a family of six children, and was commissioned a brigadier general, U.S. Volunteers. He took part in the West Virginia campaign of 1861, served in the Kanawha region, in supreme command after Rosecrans's relief in the spring, until August 1862, when his troops were ordered to join Burnside's 9th Corps in Virginia. During Antietam, Cox commanded the corps, and at the close of the campaign (Oct. 6, 1862) he was appointed major general, U.S.V., but the appointment was not confirmed. In April-December 1863 he was head of the depart ment of Ohio. In 1864 he took part in the Atlanta campaign, as a corps-commander. He led an expedition following Sherman into the Carolinas and fought two successful actions with Bragg at Kinston (N.C.). As governor of Ohio in 1866-67, he advocated colonization of the freedmen in a restricted area, sympathized with President Johnson's programme of reconstruction and worked for a compromise between Johnson and his opponents. In 1868 he was chairman of the Republican national convention which nominated Grant. He was secretary of the interior in 1869-7o; opposed the confirmation of the treaty for the annexation of Santo Domingo; introduced the merit system in his department, and resigned in Oct. 187o because of political pressure.
He took up legal practice in Cincinnati, became president of the Toledo and Wabash and Western in 1873, and until 1877 was receiver of that company. In 1877-79 he was a representative in Congress. From 188i to 1897 he was dean of the Cincinnati law school, and from 1885 to 1889 president of the University of Cincinnati. He died at Magnolia (Mass.), on Aug. 4, 1900. A successful lawyer, and in his later years a prominent micro scopist, he is best known as one of the great "civilian" generals of the Civil War, and, with the possible exception of J. C. Ropes, one of the outstanding American authorities of his time on mili tary history, particularly the history of the Civil War.
He wrote Atlanta (1882) and The March to the Sea, Franklin and Nashville (1882), both in the series Campaigns of the Civil War; The Second Battle of Bull Run, as Connected with the Fitz-John Porter Case (Cincinnati, 1882) ; and the valuable Military Reminiscences of the Civil War (Igoo), published posthumously.
See J. R. Ewing, Public Services of Jacob Dolson Cox (Washington, 1902) , a Johns Hopkins university dissertation; and W. C. Cochran, "Early Life and Military Services of General Jacob Dolson Cox," in Bibliotheca Sacra, vol. 58 (Oberlin, O., igoi).