Brig. Gen. John R. Cooke

[CSA Today]

John Rogers Cooke, in February 1862 he was made a major and assigned to duty as chief of artillery of the Department of North Carolina under General Holmes. On 16 April, at the request of General Robert Ransom, Cooke was elected colonel of the Twenty-seventh North Carolina Regiment. He was to prove a most able commander and soon grew to be quite popular with his men, who found him firm in the enforcement of orders but not a martinet. A kind man, he looked after his troops, and they in turn responded with affection and a willingness to follow in battle equaled by few other regiments.

Cooke, though he was junior colonel of his brigade, was appointed brigadier general on 1 November 1862, to rank from the same date. His appointment was confirmed 22 April 1863, and he was given command of a newly created brigade of North Carolina troops consisting of his own former regiment and the former Fifteenth, Forty-sixth, Forty-eight, and Forty-ninth regiments. This brigade was a part of Ransom's (formerly Walker's) division. Cooke was wounded seven times during the war.

Upon the secession of Virginia from the Union at the outbreak of the War in 1861, Cooke resigned his commission in the army and offered his services to General Theophilus Holmes, commander at Fredericksburg, Va. The horror of a family divided by the war was graphically illustrated with Cooke's family: he was in the Confederate Army; his father remained loyal to the Union and commanded cavalry in McClellan's Federal army; one of Cooke's sisters, Flora, married James E. B. ("Jeb") Stuart, the famous Confederate cavalry leader, who was destined to fight against his father-in-law; another of Cooke's sisters, Maria, married a Confederate surgeon, Dr. Charles Brewer; and the third sister, Julia, married a Federal general, Bvt. Brigadier General Jacob Sharpe.

Photo: An 1886 photograph of John Rogers Cooke.

 

[KeyserSoze]

It's always interesting to read about families split by the war. I imagine Christmas gatherings were a bit...tense.

 

[MRB1863]

This is an interesting story of another family divided. Reminds me of the Schriver brothers who lived across the road from one another near Gettysburg/Hunterstown but were worlds apart in their political orientation. One with strong beliefs of Union conviction, the other with his heart sympathizing with Dixie. By the way, General Cooke had also been Commander at the Carlisle War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania during his military career.