Samuel Cooper (general)

Samuel Cooper
Samuel Cooper
Born	June 12, 1798; New Hackensack, New York, US
Died	December 3, 1876 (aged 78); Alexandria, Virginia, US
Place of burial	Christ Church Cemetery,; Alexandria, Virginia, US
Allegiance	United States; Confederate States;
Service/branch	United States Army (USA); Confederate States Army (CSA);
Years of service	1815–1861 (USA); 1861–1865 (CSA);
Rank	Colonel (USA); General (CSA);
Commands held	Adjutant general; Inspector general;
Battles/wars	Second Seminole War; Mexican–American War; American Civil War

Samuel Cooper (June 12, 1798 – December 3, 1876) was an American career Army staff officer, serving during the Second Seminole War and the Mexican–American War. Although little-known today, Cooper was technically the highest-ranking general officer in the Confederate States Army throughout the American Civil War, even outranking Robert E. Lee. After the conflict, Cooper remained in Virginia as a farmer.

Early life and career

Samuel Cooper was born in New Hackensack, Dutchess County, New York.^[1]^[2]^[3] He was a son of Samuel Cooper and his wife Mary Horton.^[4] In 1813, he entered the United States Military Academy at age 15. He graduated 36th in a class of 40 two years later (the standard length of study in that period.)^[5] He was appointed a brevet second lieutenant in the U.S. Light Artillery on December 11, 1815. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1821 and to captain in 1836.^[6]

In 1827, Cooper married Sarah Maria Mason, becoming the brother-in-law of future Confederate diplomat James M. Mason. Sarah's sister, Ann Maria Mason, was the mother of Confederate cavalry general Fitzhugh Lee, a nephew of Robert E. Lee, while her brother John Mason, was a son-in-law of Gen. Alexander Macomb. Cooper served as aide-de-camp for Gen. Macomb from 1828 to 1836 and, under his supervision, authored A Concise System of Instructions and Regulations for the Militia and Volunteers of the United States.^[7]

Cooper served in numerous artillery units until 1837 when he was appointed chief clerk of the U.S. War Department. In 1838 he received a brevet promotion to major and was appointed assistant adjutant general of the Army. Nine years later, with a brevet as lieutenant colonel, he served in the same capacity.

Cooper's service in the Second Seminole War of 1841–42 was a rare departure for him from Washington, D.C. He was chief of staff for Col. William J. Worth. After hostilities ended, he returned to staff duty in Washington from 1842 to 1845.^[8] Cooper received a brevet promotion to colonel on May 30, 1848, for his War Department service in the Mexican–American War, and was promoted to the permanent rank of colonel in the regular army and appointed the army's Adjutant General on July 15, 1852.^[6] Cooper also served very briefly as acting U.S. Secretary of War in 1857.^[9]

Cooper was also a slaveowner: at the time of the 1850 census, he had six slaves.^[10] On February 5, 1857, his daughter Sarah Maria Mason Cooper (August 4, 1836 – December 15, 1858) married Frank Wheaton, who became a Union Army general during the American Civil War. They had one child, Sarah Maria Cooper Wheaton, in 1858.^[11]

American Civil War service

Cooper joined the Confederacy at the beginning of the American Civil War. His wife's family was from Virginia, and he had a close friendship with Jefferson Davis, who had also been U.S. Secretary of War.^[12] One of his last official acts as Adjutant General of the U.S. Army was to sign an order dismissing Brig. Gen. David E. Twiggs from the army. Twiggs had surrendered his command and supplies in Texas to the Confederacy (and was shortly after that made a Confederate major general.) This order was dated March 1, 1861, and Cooper resigned six days later. He traveled to Montgomery, Alabama, at the time the Confederacy's capital, to join the Confederate States Army.^[5]

On reaching Montgomery, Cooper was immediately given a commission as a brigadier general on March 16, 1861.^[6] He served as both Adjutant General and Inspector General of the Confederate Army, a post he held until the end of the war. Cooper provided much-needed organization and knowledge to the fledgling Confederate War Department, drawing on his years performing duties as Adjutant General of the U.S. Army.^[13]

On May 16, 1861, Cooper was promoted to full general in the Confederate Army.^[6] He was one of five men promoted to the grade at that time and one of only seven during the war, but with the earliest date of rank. Thus, despite his relative obscurity today, he outranked the better-known confederates Albert Sidney Johnston, Robert E. Lee, Joseph E. Johnston, and P. G. T. Beauregard.^[14] Cooper reported directly to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.^[5] At the war's end in 1865, Cooper surrendered and was paroled on May 3 at Charlotte, North Carolina.^[6]

While building defenses near Washington, D.C., Union forces demolished his home and used its bricks to build a fort dubbed "Traitor's Hill" in dishonor of Cooper.^[15]

Postbellum life

Cooper's last official act for the Confederacy was to preserve the official records of the Confederate Army and turn them over intact to the United States government, where they form a part of the Official Records, The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, published starting in 1880. Military historians have highly regarded Cooper for this action.^[16] Historian Ezra J. Warner believed that in doing so Cooper was "thereby making a priceless contribution to the history of the period."^[13]

After the war, Cooper was a farmer at his home, Cameron, near Alexandria, Virginia. His house had been taken over by the U.S. government during the war and turned into a fort, but he was able to move into what had been an overseer's house. Due to his age, Cooper earned a meager living. On August 4, 1870, Robert E. Lee, on behalf of other former Confederates, sent Cooper $300 (~$7,228 in 2023). Lee wrote to him saying, "To this sum I have only been able to add $100, but I hope it may enable you to supply some immediate want and prevent you from taxing your strength too much."^[5] Samuel Cooper died at his home in 1876 and is buried in Alexandria's Christ Church Episcopal Cemetery.^[6]

Selected works

A Concise System of Instructions and Regulations for the Militia and Volunteers of the United States. Philadelphia: Robert P. Desilver. 1836. Prepared and Arranged by Brevet Captain S. Cooper, Aide de Camp and Assistant Adjutant General. Under the Supervision of Major General Alexander Macomb, Commanding the Army of the United States.

Notes

^ Davis, William C. "General Samuel Cooper." In Leaders of the Lost Cause: New Perspectives on the Confederate High Command, edited by Gary W. Gallagher and Joseph T. Glatthaar, 101–131. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2004, 102
^ Lee, Fitzhugh. "Sketch of the Late General S. Cooper." Southern Historical Society Papers 3, no. 5–6 (June 1877): 271
^ Mary Boykin Chesnut, A Diary from Dixie As Written by Mary Boykin Chesnut (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1905), 150. Cooper's place of birth is often incorrectly given as Hackensack, New Jersey, by Dupuy (p. 189), Eicher (p. 184), Wakelyn (p. 150), and Wright (p. 9); place of birth given as Dutchess County, New York, by Warner (p. 62), or just New York by Snow (p. 305); place of birth given as New Hackensack, New York, by both websites "leeslieutenants.com" and "generalcooper.com".
^ Wakelyn, p. 150.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Lee's Lieutenants site biography of Cooper". www.civilwarreference.com. Retrieved September 23, 2011.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Eicher, p. 185.
^ Cooper, Samuel (1836). A Concise System of Instructions and Regulations for the Militia and Volunteers of the United States. Philadelphia: Robert P. Desilver.
^ Dupuy, pp. 189–90.
^ Eicher, p. 185. He held the position from March 3 to 6, 1857.
^ "Seventh Census of the United States, Slave Schedules, United States census, 1850; Ward 1, Washington; line 31-36. Retrieved on May 27, 2016.
^ Descendants of George Mason 1629-1686 - Person Page 6 Archived January 15, 2009, at the Wayback Machine. Gunston Hall Plantation Website. Retrieved January 6, 2009.
^ Warner, pp. 62-3.
^ ^a ^b Warner, p. 63.
^ Eicher, p. 807. Generals (ACSA) Line Command List
^ Christine Jirikowic; Gwen J. Hurst; Tammy Bryant. "Archeological Investigation at 206 North Quaker Lane (44AX193)" (PDF). p. 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 25, 2021. Retrieved August 13, 2021 – via City of Alexandria, VA.
^ Lee's Lieutenants site biography of Cooper: "This contribution is said to be Samuel's most lasting contribution to the Confederacy, in overseeing the removal of War Department records from Richmond in April 1865, and protecting them until they could be turned over to Federal authorities..."

References

Davis, William C. "General Samuel Cooper." In Leaders of the Lost Cause: New Perspectives on the Confederate High Command, edited by Gary W. Gallagher and Joseph T. Glatthaar, 101–131. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2004.
Dupuy, Trevor N., Curt Johnson, and David L. Bongard. The Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography. New York: HarperCollins, 1992. ISBN 978-0-06-270015-5.
Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher. Civil War High Commands. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
Lee, Fitzhugh. "Sketch of the Late General S. Cooper." Southern Historical Society Papers 3, no. 5-6 (June 1877): 269–76.
Sifakis, Stewart. Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File, 1988. ISBN 978-0-8160-1055-4.
Snow, William P. Lee and His Generals. New York: Gramercy Books, 1996. ISBN 0-517-38109-5. First published 1867 by Richardson and Co.
Wakelyn, Jon L. Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1977. ISBN 0-8371-6124-X.
Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. ISBN 978-0-8071-0823-9.
Wright, Marcus J., General Officers of the Confederate Army: Officers of the Executive Departments of the Confederate States, Members of the Confederate Congress by States. Mattituck, NY: J. M. Carroll & Co., 1983. ISBN 0-8488-0009-5. First published 1911 by Neale Publishing Co.