System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Phillip St. George Cooke
1809 - 1895
Phillip St. George Cooke, Union Civil War general whose family had split loyalties during the conflict, died March 20, 1895. He was 85.
Cooke was born June 13, 1809 in Leesburg, Virginia. An 1827 graduate of West Point, he would go on to a 50-year career in the Army.
Cooke was a veteran of the Indian wars and Mexican War, and just prior to the Civil war was an observer in the Crimean War in Russia.
At the outset of the Civil War, Cooke was a colonel. And even though he was a Virginian, he chose to fight for the Union. In November 1861, he was commissioned a brigadier general in the Regular Army, taking command of Washington, D.C.'s cavalry troops.
Cooke's combat duty during the war was limited. He commanded a cavalry division under General George McClellan during the Peninsular Campaign in the spring of 1862.
For the remainder of the war, Cooke served in administrative posts, including court-martial boards, commander of the District of Baton Rouge, and was in charge of recruitments at war's end.
The more interesting facts about Cooke concern his family that was torn by its support of both the Union and Confederate philosophies.
Cooke's son, John R. Cooke, became a Confederate general. One of his daughters aligned herself with her father, but two other daughters sided with the Confederacy. One of the pro-South daughters was married to famous Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart, the cavalry officer who was one of General Robert E. Lee's most trusted lieutenants.
The political split in the family made national news at the time, and after the war, the family remained estranged for most of their lives.
After the war, Cooke continued to serve in the military in administrative posts, until his retirement in October 1873, more than 50 years after his service began as a West Point cadet in 1823. He also authored several books about his Civil War experiences.
Cooke died in Detroit, Michigan on March 20, 1895.
