47040: Samuel Cooper Autograph Letter Signed "S. Cooper

Samuel Cooper Autograph Letter Signed "S. Cooper." Four pages of a bifolium, 5" x 8", Alexandria, Virginia; May 27, 1871. Addressed to Colonel Charles C. Jones Jr., regarding his service in the Civil War. It reads in part: "I resigned my commission in the Army of the U.S. (that of Adj. Genl) on the 7 March 1861, two days after the inauguration of President Lincoln, and retired to my home in Fairfax Co. Va near to Alexandria. Having determined to offer my services to the Confederate States, I completed all my arrangements at home & left for Montgomery the 12 March...appointed a Brigadier General in the Confederate Army & assigned to duty as Adj. & Inspt. Genl...After the second inauguration of President Davis, on the 22d of Feby 1862, & when the provisional Congress was organized into two houses, a Senate & House of Representatives, the President submitted to the Senate a nomination list of all the commissioned officers, who had been appointed & confirmed by the provisional Congress. At the head of that list was the nomination of the ‘Generals'...My name stood first on that list, next Genl Rob. E. Lee, then Genl J. E. Johnston, then Genl Sidney Johnson, & last, I think Gl. Bragg..." Samuel Cooper (1798-1876) born in Duchess County, New York, was a career U.S. Army soldier, serving in both the Second Seminole War and the Mexican-American War, until the Civil War broke out. He joined the Confederate army and was immediately appointed a general in the Confederate army. He was the highest-ranking Confederate general during the Civil War, reporting directly to Jefferson Davis. Union forces tore down his home while building defenses around Washington, D.C., and used the bricks to build a fort nicknamed "Traitor's Hill". Condition: Flattened folds, with a separation at the vertical spine fold. The last page is tipped into a slightly larger sheet, supporting the edges of the paper. The last page has a small amount of paper loss at the right lower corner, which does not affect any of the text. HID03101062020 © 2020 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved