Cooke, Philip St. George

Born: 1809-06-13 Leesburg, Virginia

Died: 1895-03-20 Detroit, Michigan

Philip St. George Cooke was an American infantry and cavalry officer and author. Cooke received his early education at schools near his parent's home. In 1823, he received an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy, graduating in 1827 twenty-third in a class of thirty-eight cadets. The War Department commissioned him as second lieutenant in the U.S. Sixth Infantry. From 1827 to 1833, Cooke served in a number of posts on the frontier, seeing action in many skirmishes with Native Americans, most notably the Black Hawk War. In 1830, he married Rachel Hertzog, with whom he would have three children. In March 1833, Cooke transferred to the cavalry, receiving promotion to first lieutenant in the newly-formed U.S. First Dragoons (later Cavalry). In May 1835, he received promotion to captain. At the beginning of the Mexican War, Stephen W. Kearny ordered him to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to begin negotiations for the transfer of New Mexico to the United States. Once in Santa Fe, Cooke took command of a battalion of Mormon volunteers, which he organized into an effective military force that undertook an arduous march from Santa Fe to San Diego, California. In February 1847, the War Department promoted Cooke to major and transferred him to the Second Dragoons. After the war, he rose steadily in the peacetime army, earning promotion to lieutenant colonel in July 1853 and to colonel in command of the Second Dragoons in June 1858. He spent most of his time in frontier duty, seeing military action in skirmishes with the Sioux and Apache. In addition to his duties on the frontier, Cooke helped quell the border conflict in Kansas in 1856 and 1857 and participated in the Mormon expedition in 1857 and 1858. Just prior to the Civil War, he published Calvary Tactics, which earned him the reputation as the foremost authority on the subject in the U.S. Army. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, Cooke remained loyal to the Union, despite strong family ties to the Confederacy (his son-in-law was J. E. B. Stuart). In November 1861, he received promotion to brigadier general. He commanded a calvary brigade in Washington, DC, and participated in the reorganization of the Army of the Potomac. During the Peninsula Campaign, Cooke commanded a division of reserve cavalry. After the Peninsula Campaign, he spent a year on court-martial duty before receiving command of the Baton Rouge district of the Department of the Gulf in October 1863. He held this command until May 1864, when he became general superintendent of recruiting, a post he held until 1866. The War Department breveted Cooke major general in 1865, and he retired from the army in 1873.

"Cooke, Philip St. George," Webster's American Military Biographies (Springfield, MA: G. & C. Merriam, 1978), 79-80; James K. Hogue, "Cooke, Philip St. George," American National Biography, ed. by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 5:404-5; George W. Cullum, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy, 3rd ed. (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1891), 1:397-98.