He was killed at the Battle of Atlanta, facing the army of his old West Point classmate John Bell Hood, who paid a warm tribute to his character.

For a year after his graduation, he was assistant instructor of practical engineering at the Military Academy, a position never before given to so young an officer.

[5] In 1859, while in San Francisco, he met Emily Hoffman, a woman from a prominent merchant family in Baltimore who had come to California to help care for her sister's children.

[4] During the days that led up to the Battle of Shiloh, McPherson accompanied Sherman questioning people in the area and learned that the Confederates were bringing large numbers of troops from every direction by train to Corinth, Mississippi, which was itself an important railroad junction.

He briefly commanded an infantry brigade before being promoted to major general, rising to that position primarily due to the influence of Halleck and Grant.

His leave was initially granted, but quickly revoked by Sherman, who explained McPherson was needed for his upcoming Atlanta Campaign.

Sherman planned to have the bulk of his forces feint toward Dalton, Georgia, while McPherson would bear the brunt of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston's attack, and attempt to trap them.

The troops drew near Pumpkinvine Creek, where they attacked and drove the Confederates from Dallas, Georgia, even before Sherman's order to do so.

Confederate President Jefferson Davis became frustrated with Johnston's strategy of maneuver and retreat, and on July 17 replaced him with Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood.

Then Hood's cavalry reported that the left flank of McPherson's Army of the Tennessee, east of Atlanta, was unprotected.

McPherson had advanced his troops into Decatur, Georgia, and from there, they moved onto high ground on Bald Hill overlooking Atlanta.

On July 22, while they were discussing this new development, however, four Confederate divisions under Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee flanked Union Maj. Gen. Grenville Dodge's XVI Corps.

When the Confederate troops approached and asked his orderly who the downed officer was, the aide replied "Sir, it is General McPherson.

[9] McPherson was the second-highest-ranking Union officer to be killed in action during the war (the highest ranking was John Sedgwick).

[6] Sherman declared in his official report: His public enemies, even the men who directed the fatal shot, never spoke or wrote of him without expressions of marked respect; those whom he commanded loved him even to idolatry; and I, his associate and commander, fail in words adequate to express my opinion of his great worth.

Neither the years nor the difference of sentiment that had led us to range ourselves on opposite sides in the war had lessened my friendship; indeed the attachment formed in early youth was strengthened by my admiration and gratitude for his conduct toward our people in the vicinity of Vicksburg.

[18] In his home town of Clyde, Ohio, James B. McPherson Highway (US 20) was dedicated and named in his honor on August 9, 1941;[19] the designation was extended across the state in 1973.

There were many US Civil War officers in attendance for the dedication of the monument, including General William Tecumseh Sherman.

[21] The alternate history novel Never Call Retreat: Lee and Grant: The Final Victory, by Newt Gingrich, and William R. Forstchen, includes McPherson as a major character.