Cooke, Philip St. George

Born in Virginia, Philip Cooke was a Union general whose own son, and both son-in-laws, one of whom was J.E.B. Stuart, served in the Confederate army. Cooke was known as the "Father of the U.S. Cavalry" and spent numerous days before the war in Carlisle at the army's cavalry school. (By Don Sailer)
Life Span
to
    Full name
    Philip St. George Cooke
    Place of Birth
    Birth Date Certainty
    Exact
    Death Date Certainty
    Exact
    Gender
    Male
    Race
    White
    Sectional choice
    North
    No. of Spouses
    1
    No. of Children
    3
    Family
    Stephen Cooke (father), Catherine Esten (mother), Rachel Hertzog (wife, 1830), J.E.B. Stuart (son-in-law), John Rogers Cooke (son)
    Education
    West Point (US Military Academy)
    Occupation
    Military
    Writer or Artist
    Military
    US military (Pre-Civil War)
    Union Army
    US military (Post-Civil War)

    Philip St. George Cooke (American National Bibliography)

    Scholarship
    Just before the outbreak of the Civil War, he published Cavalry Tactics (1861), which earned him a reputation as the acknowledged expert on that subject in the U.S. Army.

    Because of his expertise, military experience, and reputation, both the Union and the Confederacy wooed Cooke in 1861. His decision to remain loyal to the Union was complicated when his son and both of his sons-in-law chose Virginia over the Union and became Confederate officers. His son, John Rogers Cooke, became a Confederate brigadier general. One of his sons-in-law, J. E. B. Stuart, achieved fame as Robert E. Lee's renowned cavalry commander, which provoked rumors that Cooke did not enthusiastically favor prosecuting the war and eventually contributed to his professional decline.
    James K. Hogue, "Cooke, Philip St. George," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/04/04-00262.html.
    How to Cite This Page: "Cooke, Philip St. George," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/5465.