John Rogers Cooke

Background

John Rogers Cooke was born on June 9, 1833, in Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, United States. He was the son of Union general Philip Saint George and Rachel Wilt Hertzog Cooke.

Education

Cooke took preparatory courses at the University of Missouri in Columbia from 1845 through 1847 and then spent about a year enrolled in school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where his father was post commander. He attended school in Alexandria, Virginia, for a time and then studied civil engineering at Harvard University's Lawrence Scientific School during the 1851-1852 academic year but did not graduate.

Career

Cooke worked on railroad construction in Ohio and Missouri before his father secured him a commission as a second lieutenant in the United States Army on July 22, 1856. He served with the 8th Infantry in New Mexico Territory and Texas.

Cooke was promoted to the first lieutenant on March 29, 1861. During the secession crisis, he returned to Missouri, and after the Civil War began, he resigned his commission and traveled to Virginia in order to join the Confederate States Army, actions that caused a bitter division with his father, who remained in the regular army and became a Union brigadier general later that year. Named a first lieutenant, Cooke was assigned to Brigadier General Theophilus Hunter Holmes's staff. Following the First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run), Cooke raised a company of light artillery, which he commanded until February 1862, when he was promoted to major and became chief of artillery in the Department of North Carolina.

In April 1862 Cooke was elected colonel of the 27th Regiment North Carolina Infantry. During the Antietam campaign, his regiment participated in the seizure of Loudoun Heights overlooking Harpers Ferry. At Sharpsburg (Antietam) on September 17, Cooke was ordered to lead his men and an Arkansas regiment in an exposed attack on a Union line of defense. The attack failed after the Confederate units exhausted their ammunition. Reassuming their original positions, Cooke's troops, without the benefit of shot, held their line against repeated Union counterattacks. Cooke was promoted to brigadier general on November 1, 1862. At the Battle of Fredericksburg in December he fought at the stone wall on Marye's Heights. Two of his regiments suffered heavy casualties, while he sustained a serious wound just above his left eye.

Cooke recovered sufficiently to resume command of his brigade early in 1863. His troops, stationed for a time in South Carolina, saw little action until they fought at Bristoe Station, in Prince William County, Virginia, in October 1863. The brigade sustained heavy casualties, and Cooke received another severe wound that kept him out of action for the remainder of the year.

Cooke returned to the battlefield in the spring. His North Carolinians performed admirably at the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864. After receiving a leg wound at Spotsylvania Court House, Cooke became incensed when a superior presumed to assume command of his troops and lead them in an attack while Cooke stayed in the field. He fought at the Battle of Reams's Station, in Dinwiddie County, on August 25, 1864. His brigade remained at Petersburg until the Union army breached the Confederate defenses early in April 1865. During the retreat, Cooke successfully extricated his troops from Sutherland Station, in Dinwiddie County. On April 9, 1865, he surrendered the 560 men left under his command at Appomattox Court House.

After the war, Cooke worked in Richmond briefly as a route agent for a company that handled business along several area railways and then for about four years managed a large agricultural and stock-raising operation in King William County. By 1877 he had established himself as a Richmond grocery merchant. Active in local and civic affairs, Cooke was a member of the city's Democratic Committee and served as president of the board of directors of the state penitentiary. Remaining devoted to the Confederate cause, he was the third commander of the R. E. Lee Camp, No. 1, Confederate Veterans, and helped found and served as manager of the R. E. Lee Camp, Confederate Soldiers' Home, in Richmond. He acted as chief of staff at the laying of the cornerstone for Richmond's Robert Edward Lee monument in 1887 and at the unveiling of the bronze equestrian statue sitting atop it three years later.

Late in the 1880s Cooke reconciled with his father and ended the estrangement that had separated them since the beginning of the Civil War.

Achievements

• John Rogers Cooke is known for his military service during the American Civil War. He fought at the Battle of the Wilderness, the Battle of Reams' Station, and his brigade remained at Petersburg until the Union Army breached the Confederate defenses. For his brave actions, he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General.
  
  Cooke was one of the founders of the Confederate Soldiers' Home in Richmond. He was one of the first Confederate commanders of the Lee Camp, United Confederate Veterans, and acted as chief of staff at the laying of the cornerstone of the Lee Monument in Richmond.

Politics

Cooke was a member of the Democratic party.

Membership

Cooke was a member of the Association of the Army of Northern Virginia and sat on the executive committee of the Southern Historical Society.

Personality

John was popular with and respected by his men and his superiors alike. In 1864, Colonel R. H. Chilton, Lee's chief of staff, transmitted to Cooke a letter in which Lee praised Cooke as the finest of his brigadier generals and his brigade as the finest of the army.

Connections

On January 5, 1864, John married Anne Gordon Patton. They had eight children.

Father:

Philip St. George Cooke

1809-1895

Mother:

Rachel Wilt Hertzog Cooke

1807-1896

Sister:

Flora Cooke Stuart

1836-1923

Sister:

Maria Pendleton Cooke Brewer

1840-1926

Sister:

Julia Turner Cooke Sharpe

1842-1902

Wife:

Anne Gordon Patton Cooke

1844-1914

Son:

John Rogers Cooke

1865-1951

Son:

Fairlie Patton Cooke

1867-1934

Daughter:

Ellen Mercer Cooke Brockenbrough

1869-1927

Son:

Philip St. George Cooke

1871-1961

Daughter:

Rachel Cooke Bridgforth

1874-1960

Daughter:

Hallie Patton Cooke Wallace

1876-1972

Daughter:

Nancy Gordon Cooke Parker

1878-1976

Son:

Stuart Cooke

1879-1955

brother-in-law:

James Stuart

colleague:

Theophilus Holmes

References

• Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy
  1977
• Civil War High Commands
  2002
• Who Was Who in the Civil War
  1988
• Generals in Gray Lives of the Confederate Commander
  1959