Brevet Major-General Martin T. McMahon, U.S.V.

Brevet Major-General Martin T. McMahon was born in Canada in 1838. His father and uncle, who were temporarily residing there, had been connected with the Canadian rebellion of that year, and were obliged to leave suddenly for the United States for fear of arrest. General McMahon was graduated at-St. John's College, Fordham, New York, at the age of seventeen. He subsequently received from the same college the degree of LL.D. He studied law in Buffalo in the office of Hon. Eli Cook, at that time mayor of the city. While still under age he was appointed to succeed his elder brother as corresponding clerk in the appointment office of the Post-Office Department at Washington, and in the last year of Buchanan's administration he was sent as special agent of the Post-Office Department for the Pacific coast to California, where he remained until the outbreak of the war.

Upon the first call for troops he entered the service, and was elected captain of the first company of cavalry organized on the Pacific coast. He was not mustered in, however, as orders had been received from Washington to retain the California volunteers within that State to relieve the regular troops on duty there. McMahon thereupon resigned his command, and shortly afterwards was appointed captain in the U. S. Army and additional aide-de-camp on the staff of Major-General George B. McClellan, who had just been called to Washington. He served with the Army of the Potomac from the beginning to the end, and was present in every engagement in which that army took part. During the Seven Days' fight on the Peninsula he was assigned, at his own request, to the staff of Major-General William B. Franklin, commanding the Sixth Army Corps. He was subsequently promoted to be major and aide-de-camp, and afterwards lieutenant-colonel and assistant adjutant-general of the Left Grand Division, Army of the Potomac. When that division was discontinued after Burnside's failure at Fredericksburg, McMahon was reassigned as adjutant-general to the Sixth Army Corps, and served as chief of staff to General Sedgwick until that officer's death at Spottsylvania. He was continued in the same capacity under General Wright until the end of 1864, when he was assigned to temporary duty in New York, on the staff of Major-General Dix, commanding the Department of the East.

He was U. S. marshal for the Southern District of New York during President Cleveland's administration; was elected to the Assembly in 1890, carrying a Republican district which had never before elected a Democrat. The following year he made a similar contest for the State Senate, and again carried a district which had always been represented by a Republican. He was chairman of the Committee on General Laws, and of that on Military Affairs in the Senate. He received the Congressional medal of honor for " distinguished bravery at the battle of White Oak Swamp." The incident for which it was conferred was the burning of a pontoon train which had been abandoned between the lines. McMahon volunteered to destroy it, and did so, after saving one of the wagons, to which he succeeded in attaching some straggling mules that were wandering up and down between the lines of the two armies. This wagon was the instrument-wagon of the train, and was extremely valuable.

General McMahon is a lawyer in good practice in the city of New York. He is also one of the managers of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, and was three times elected by Congress to that important position. During his military service he was brevetted four times, and several times mentioned in orders for gallant and meritorious service.

Source: Officers of the Volunteer Army and Navy who served in the Civil War, published by L.R. Hamersly & Co., 1893, 419 pgs.

Related Links:

• Civil War Records
• Civil War Microfilm at the National Archives
• McMahon Surname

 

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