Robert Patterson

Robert Patterson (January 12, 1792 – August 7, 1881) was an Irish-born American military officer who served in the United States Army during the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War and the Civil War.

He was the commander of the Pennsylvania Militia during the Philadelphia nativist riots, and was politically active in Pennsylvania as a Jacksonian Democrat. He was a wealthy businessman and owned 30 cotton mills in Pennsylvania, a sugar plantation in Louisiana and other investments in railroads and steamships.

In the Mexican-American War, Patterson was a major general and served as second in command to Winfield Scott. He fought at the Siege of Veracruz and the Battle of Cerro Gordo.

Patterson was a major general, and at 69 the oldest in the Union Army, at the start of the Civil War. He served only three months due to his failure to attack Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston's troops after the Battle of Hoke's Run. This allowed Johnston to support P. G. T. Beauregard and give the Union Army their first defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run.

Patterson was widely blamed for the Union loss at Bull Run and defended his Civil War performance in his book, A Narrative of the Campaign in the Valley of the Shenandoah, in 1861, published in 1865.