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/node/5465.