Richard Sears McCulloh (18 March 1818 – 1894) was an American civil engineer and professor of mechanics and thermodynamics at the Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia.
McCulloh fled the city but was captured two months later off the coast of Florida, and for almost two years was imprisoned in the Virginia State Penitentiary.
[5] After being released, in 1866 McCulloh was appointed to the new "McCormick Professorship of Experimental Philosophy & Applied Mathematics" at Washington and Lee College.
[10] In 1876, a collection of McCulloh's lecture notes were published in a book entitled Treatise on the Mechanical Theory of Heat and its Application to the Steam Engine, Etc.
McCulloh acknowledged the pioneering work of James Prescott Joule and Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot in establishing the laws of thermodynamics.