Born in Clyde, Ohio, in 1828, James Birdseye McPherson left home at 13 to clerk in a store in nearby Green Springs. He attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, graduating first in his class, in 1853.

When the Civil War began, McPherson served under General Ulysses S. Grant, who appointed him in 1863 to lead the Army of the Tennessee. Killed in an ambush in 1864 near Atlanta, Major-General McPherson was the highest-ranking Union officer killed in the Civil War. He is buried in Clyde, in the McPherson Cemetery, named for him.