a crushing defeat upon Nathan Bedford Forrest. In early May, McCook's division was assigned to re-establish federal control and authority in Florida, whose ardent secessionist governor, John Milton, had shot himself in the head rather than submit to Union occupation. On May 13, Col. George Washington Scott surrendered the last active Confederate troops in the state to McCook. On May 20, McCook read Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation during a ceremony in Tallahassee, officially ending slavery in Florida. That same day, his jubilant troopers raised the U.S. flag over the state capitol. McCook reached the rank of brevet major general in the volunteers by the end of the war, and received the official praise of his superior, James H. Wilson. While not a professionally trained soldier, McCook was efficient and brave. He received a total of five brevet promotions in the Civil War, all for gallantry and meritorious service. Postbellum career He returned to the regular army when his volunteers were mustered out following the war. In 1866, McCook resigned from the army and returned to civilian life. President Andrew Johnson appointed McCook to serve as the U.S. Minister to the Kingdom of Hawaii from 1866 through 1868. In 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed McCook Governor of the Territory of Colorado, a selection bitterly opposed by Jerome B. Chaffee, the Colorado Territorial Delegate to the United States House of Representatives. During his tenure, Governor McCook signed the legislation that created Colorado Agricultural College (now Colorado State University) and was among the first territorial governors to endorse women's suffrage. He was a member of the Republican National Committee in 1872. McCook left the governorship when his second term expired in 1875 and turned to various business pursuits. He became very wealthy from numerous shrewd investments in real estate, mining interests and in new European telephone companies. For a time, he paid more income and business taxes than any man in Colorado. McCook died in Chicago, Illinois, and is buried in Union Cemetery in Steubenville. The city of McCook, Nebraska, was named in honor of his cousin Alexander McDowell McCook. See also List of American Civil War generals (Union) History of Colorado Law and government of Colorado List of governors of Colorado Territory of Colorado Notes References Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher. Civil War High Commands. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001. . Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Blue: Lives