Samuel Cooper, CSA
Born: June 12, 1798, Hackensack, New Jersey
Died: December 3, 1876, near Alexandria, Virginia
- U. S. Military Academy (West Point) graduate, 1815 (36th in class of 40*)
- Commissioned Brevet 2nd Lieutenant, Artillery Corps, USA, Regulars, 1815
- Spent three decades in U. S. Army as an artillerist before becoming a military administrator
- Served in field during the Seminole War
- Served on staff in Washington, D. C. during the Mexican War
- Appointed Adjutant General, U. S. Army, 1852-1961
- Resigned USA commission, March 7, 1861
- Appointed General, CSA, May 16, 1861
- First and highest ranking Confederate general, 1861-1865
- Served throughout the Civil War in Richmond, Virginia, as "Adjutant and Inspector General"
- Help Confederate President Jefferson Davis organize the Confederate War Department and the Confederate Army
- At war's end, Cooper turned over all of his Confederate military records to Federal authorities, providing historians a great resource for future analysis
Buried: Christ Church Episcopal Cemetery, Alexandria, Virginia
COMMANDS:
- Adjutant and Inspector General, CSA, in Richmond, Virginia, 1861-1865
BATTLES:
- Seminole War
* Note: Prior to 1818, the U. S. Military Academy had no system of establishing class rank. Cooper's rank of 36th of 40 is based on length of time as a USMA cadet, not on academic merit.
(Source: Ezra J. Warner, Generals In Gray, (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1993), pp.1-350; Mark M. Boatner III, The Civil War Dictionary, (New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1959), pp. 1-954; Patricia L. Faust, ed., Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia Of The Civil War, (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers), pp. 1-850; Bruce Catton, The Civil War, (Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1987), pp. 323-350; Richard Owen and James Owen, Generals At Rest, (Shippensburg, Pennsylvania: White Mane Publishing Company, 1997), pp. 1-335; E. B. Long, The Civil War Day By Day An Almanac 1861-1865 (New York: Doubleday & Co., Inc. 1971), pp. 2-697.)