Darius Nash Couch was born on July 23, 1822, on his family’s farm near Southeast in Putnam County, New York. He was the second of three children born to Jonathan and Elizabeth Couch, and his grandfather Thomas Couch had fought in the Revolutionary War. After attending local schools, Couch secured an appointment to the United States Military Academy, entering on July 1, 1842. He graduated four years later, ranked thirteenth in a class of fifty-nine cadets.
His classmates included Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, who would later command Confederate forces, and several future Union generals, among them John G. Foster, Jesse L. Reno, Charles C.
Gilbert, George Stoneman, George H. Gordon, and Couch’s close friend George B. McClellan. Following graduation, the Army brevetted Couch to second lieutenant and assigned him to the Fourth U.
S. Artillery. Like many of his classmates, he served in the Mexican-American War, where he received a brevet promotion to lieutenant for gallant and meritorious conduct at the Battle of Buena Vista. On December 4, 1847, officials promoted him to first lieutenant with the Fourth Artillery.
After the war, the Army sent Couch to Fort Pickens, Florida, where he campaigned against the Seminole Indians for two years. From 1850 to 1853, he served garrison duty at various posts, including Fort Columbus in New York, Fort Johnson in North Carolina, and Fort Mifflin in Pennsylvania. During the winter of 1852 to 1853, the War Department granted Couch a leave of absence to conduct a scientific expedition in Mexico for the Smithsonian Institution. According to the institution’s Ninth Annual Report, published in 1855, Lieutenant Couch gathered extensive collections in all departments of zoology and made many original notes on habits and species.
He obtained numerous new species and made important discoveries about the geographical distribution of others. Two species identified by Couch still bear his name: Couch’s kingbird and Couch’s spadefoot toad. In 1854, Couch returned to garrison duty in the United States, first at Fort Independence in Massachusetts and later at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. On August 31, 1852, he married Mary Caroline Crocker, the daughter of Samuel L.
Crocker, a United States congressman from Taunton, Massachusetts. Their marriage lasted forty-two years and produced one daughter and one son. A few months after his marriage, Couch resigned from the Army on April 30, 1855, and moved to New York City to begin a career as a merchant. Two years later, he moved to Massachusetts to work as a copper fabricator for the Taunton Copper Company, owned by his father-in-law.
When the Civil War erupted, Massachusetts Governor John Andrew authorized Couch to recruit a regiment of soldiers. On June 15, 1861, the Seventh Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry mustered into service under Colonel Couch’s command. In July, Couch and his men traveled to Washington, D. C.
, where they manned the defenses surrounding the nation’s capital until March 1862. Following the Union disaster at the First Battle of Bull Run, President Abraham Lincoln called upon Major General George B. McClellan to lead the Union war effort. On July 25, 1861, the War Department issued General Orders Number 47, combining the Departments of Washington and Northeastern Virginia into one division under McClellan’s command.
On August 20, McClellan issued General Orders Number One, assuming command of the Army of the Potomac. The same day, the War Department issued General Orders Number 62, promoting Couch to brigadier general, dated May 17, 1861. As McClellan organized his new command, his friend from West Point advanced quickly. By the time McClellan launched his Peninsula Campaign in March 1862, Couch commanded the first division of the Fourth Corps of the Army of the Potomac.
During the campaign, Couch was engaged at the Siege of Yorktown, the Battle of Williamsburg, the Battle of Seven Pines, the Battle of Oak Grove, and the Battle of Malvern Hill. When Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia forced McClellan’s army to retreat down the Virginia Peninsula, President Lincoln and General-in-Chief Henry Halleck recalled the Army of the Potomac to the Washington area on August 3, 1862. With McClellan off the peninsula, Lee turned his attention to Major General John Pope’s Army of Virginia and scored a major victory at the Second Battle of Bull Run.
Reinforcements from the Army of the Potomac, including Couch’s division, prevented the Union defeat from being worse than it could have been. Lee’s victory opened the way for a Confederate invasion of the North. During the Maryland Campaign, Couch’s division supported the Fourth Corps, but they did not arrive at Sharpsburg until September 18, the day after the Battle of Antietam. Although they missed the battle, Couch and his men pursued the Army of Northern Virginia as it withdrew into Virginia during the following days.
On September 26, Army officials reorganized Couch’s division as the third division of the Sixth Army Corps. They transferred Couch to command of the second division of the corps on November 1, 1862. The War Department issued General Orders Number 181 announcing Couch’s promotion to major general, dated July 4, 1862. On November 5, 1862, President Lincoln replaced McClellan with Major General Ambrose E.
Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac. Nine days later, Burnside divided the army into three grand divisions, assigning Couch to command the Second Corps under Major General Edwin V. Sumner’s Right Grand Division. The following month, Burnside led the Army of the Potomac across the Rappahannock River and engaged Lee’s army at Fredericksburg, Virginia.
During the battle, Couch’s corps crossed the Rappahannock under heavy Confederate fire on December 12. After establishing a beachhead on the south side of the river, the Federals met fierce resistance in some of the first urban fighting of the war as they entered Fredericksburg. Upon gaining control of the town, they embarked upon a day of looting and vandalism, enraging Lee and his soldiers. The next day, Burnside ordered Couch to attack Lee’s left flank, commanded by Lieutenant General James Longstreet.
Under murderous fire from Confederates well entrenched at the base of Marye’s Heights above Fredericksburg, sixteen separate Federal charges resulted in a bloodbath. Mercifully, darkness put an end to the killing. Determined to win the battle, Burnside planned another assault for the morning, but his subordinate officers dissuaded him during the night. Instead, Lee granted Burnside a truce to care for the Union wounded and dead on December 14.
The following day, Burnside and his defeated army limped back across the river, ending the Rappahannock Campaign. Burnside’s command was short-lived. The fallout from the disaster at Fredericksburg and a failed offensive known as the Mud March in January 1863 led to his dismissal. On January 25, 1863, the War Department issued General Orders Number 20, announcing that President Lincoln had selected Major General Joseph Hooker to replace Burnside.
Hooker wasted little time reorganizing the army on more traditional terms. On February 5, he issued General Orders Number Six, ending Burnside’s grand divisions. Hooker organized the army into eight corps and named Couch commander of the Second Corps. President Lincoln confirmed most of Hooker’s appointments when the War Department issued General Orders Number 96 on April 15, 1863.
Hooker’s first test came at the Battle of Chancellorsville, where he proved no match for Robert E. Lee. As dawn broke on May 3, Couch and other Union officers believed victory was within their grasp. At 9:15 a.
m. , however, a Confederate cannonball struck a wooden pillar that Hooker was leaning against, forcing him to abandon his headquarters, dazed by the concussion. Hooker summoned Couch, who was second in command by seniority, to a meeting approximately forty-five minutes later. Lying in a soldier’s tent, an unnerved Hooker told Couch, “I turn the command of the army over to you.
You will withdraw it and place it in the position designated on this map,” as he pointed to a line traced on a field sketch. Hooker’s decision disappointed Couch and others who favored fighting it out with Lee. Despite being outnumbered nearly two to one, Lee outmaneuvered the army and drove the Federals from the field. Hooker’s performance at Chancellorsville frustrated Couch so much that when Lincoln visited the Union lines on May 10, 1863, Couch reportedly told the president he would no longer serve under Hooker.
He requested reassignment. Lincoln complied, and on June 9, 1863, the War Department issued General Orders Number 172, assigning Couch to command the Department of the Susquehanna, headquartered at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Couch played a relatively minor role in the Gettysburg Campaign, skirmishing with Confederate cavalrymen who attempted to capture the capital city of Pennsylvania. After the Union victory at Gettysburg, his command pursued the Army of Northern Virginia as it retreated into Maryland.
During the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864, Couch abandoned his headquarters in Chambersburg when Confederate General John McCausland’s marauding cavalry threatened the town. After Chambersburg residents refused to pay McCausland’s ransom demand, he ordered his men to burn the town on July 30, 1864. A week later, on July 7, 1864, the War Department issued General Orders Number 240, merging the Department of the Susquehanna with the Department of West Virginia and the Middle Department to form the Middle Division. President Lincoln assigned Major General Philip H.
Sheridan as temporary commander and sent his cavalry command to the Shenandoah Valley to end the Confederate plundering. Couch could not escape blame for the burning of Chambersburg. On November 22, 1864, he issued General Orders Number 281, announcing that he was taking temporary leave and that Major General George Caldwell would assume command during his absence. While Couch was away, the War Department issued General Orders Number 293 on December 1, 1864, announcing that the Department of the Susquehanna would hereafter be known as the Department of Pennsylvania, with headquarters at Philadelphia.
On the same day, Couch issued General Orders Number 74, stating that in obedience to the orders of the lieutenant general commanding the armies of the United States, he relinquished command of the Department of the Susquehanna. Army officials reassigned Couch to command the second division of the Twenty-Third Army Corps, and he reported for duty in Tennessee on December 5, 1864. He assumed command on December 8. A little over one week later, he led his command during the Union victory at the Battle of Nashville.
In January 1865, officials transferred the Twenty-Third Corps to North Carolina, where Couch ended his military career with the war virtually over. He mustered out of the volunteer army on May 26, 1865. After resigning, Couch returned to Taunton, where he ran unsuccessfully for governor of Massachusetts in 1865. In 1866, he worked as collector at the Port of Boston.
In 1867, he served as president of the Virginia Mining and Manufacturing Company. In 1871, Couch moved to Connecticut, where he served as quartermaster general from January 1, 1877, to December 31, 1878, and as adjutant general from January 1, 1883, to January 1, 1885, of the state militia. Between 1881 and 1886, he was president of the Board of Trustees of the Fitchville, Connecticut, Home for Disabled Soldiers. Darius Couch died in Norwich, Connecticut, on February 12, 1897, at the age of seventy-four.
He was buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Taunton, Massachusetts.