Union General Irvin McDowell graduated from West Point in 1938. He ranked twenty third in a graduating class of 45 cadets. McDowell is most famous for his role in the first Battle of Bull Run. He and General Scott had cautioned Lincoln that US troops were not ready for a battle at that time. Both men believed that the volunteers lacked the training to fight a large battle.
Irvin McDowell graduated from West Point in 1838, and would later become an instructor there.
Union General Alexander McDowell McCook graduated from West point in 1852. He ranked 30th in a graduating class of 43 cadets. McCook saw early fighting in the West when he was under the command of General Don Carlos Buell. He met the army of Confederate General Braxton Bragg in the unintended battle at Perryville.
Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith was a graduate of West Point's class of 1845. He ranked 26th in his class.
He graduated from West Point Military Academy
Union General Daniel Tyler graduated from West Point in 1819. Among a graduating class of 29 cadets, Tyler ranked 14th. General Tyler led the 1st Division under General McDowell at the First Battle of Bull Run. His force was the first one that went into combat against Confederate General Longstreet.
According to An Adjutant General Remembers: a Military Memoir by Major General Kenneth Wickham, he graduated from West Point on 12 June 1938.
General Philip Henry Sheridan graduated from West Point in 1853. He ranked 34th out of a class of 52.
Union General Benjamin Butler did not graduate from West Point. He did have a college education and graduated from Colby College in Maine. He also passed the bar in Massachusetts and practiced law before the US Civil War.
Using terms established by European military theorist Carl Von Clausewitz, a clser look at the significant battle of the first Bull Run did have a culminating point at which the Union forces under General McDowell, had reached their maximum effort. McDowell's culminating point can be said to be on July 21, when Confederates overran McDowell's artillery batteries under the command of Captain James Ricketts. McDowell was then forced to retreat in a panic, heading north from the field of battle.
General Ulysses S. Grant
James Longstreet held the rank of major general in the Confederate army. He graduated 54th in the West Point class of 1842.
Major General William Starke Rosencrans graduated in the West Point class of 1842. He ranked fifth in his graduating class.