James Winning McMillan

James Winning McMillan was born April 28, 1825, in Clark County, Indiana. He served as sergeant of the 4th Illinois when fighting in the Mexican War and as a private in a battalion of Louisiana volunteers. Following his honorable discharge from the service in 1848, McMillan returned to Indiana and was involved in business. In 1861, he was appointed colonel of the 21st Indiana. With that regiment, he took part in Benjamin Butler’s occupation of New Orleans. The same regiment took part in defending Baton Rouge on August 5, 1862, and suffered 126 casualties. McMillan was then stationed at Berwick Bay until February 1863. On April 4, 1863, he was promoted brigadier general to rank from November 29, 1862, and commanded a brigade from March to May in 1864. Commanding the 1st Division of Emory’s XIX Corps in N. P. Banks’ Red River expedition, he saw action at Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, and Monett’s Ferry. Beginning in July 1864, the XIX Corps, now under the permanent command of McMillan, served in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia under Philip Sheridan and participated at Winchester and Cedar Creek. He commanded the 1st Division of the Department of West Virginia until the end of the war. James McMillan was brevetted major general in March 1865, and resigned his commission in May. Following the war, he lived in Kansas and, in 1875, was appointed a member of the board of review in the pension office in Washington. McMillan died March 9, 1903, while still serving on the pension board and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.