Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 4.djvu/326

302 mines of Mitchell and Yancey counties ; made known the existence of corundum, zircon, rubies and other gems in the State; furnished valuable evidence of the depth of the atmosphere by his observations on the August meteor of 1860, and affirmed long before the days of Edison that sound might in some way be transmitted with the speed of electricity. He published several volumes, including his public addresses. In later years the unselfish services which had brought him fame left him unprovided with the comforts of life, and the close of his days was a pathetic illustration of how the world may forget. He died at Morgantown, November 3, 1897.

Brigadier-General John R. Cooke was born at Jefferson barracks, Mo., in 1833, the son of Philip St. George Cooke, then first lieutenant First dragoons, U. S. A. It is an interesting fact that while the son and his sister s husband, J. E. B. Stuart, fought for Virginia in the war of the Confederacy, the father, a native of Frederick county, Va., remained in the United States army, and attained the rank of major-general, finally being retired after fifty years service. Young Cooke was educated at Harvard college as a civil engineer, but in 1855 as commissioned second lieutenant, Eighth infantry, after which he served in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. When Virginia seceded he promptly resigned his commission, reported to General Holmes at Fredericksburg as first lieutenant, and after the battle of Manassas raised a company of light artillery, which did splendid service along the Potomac. In February, 1862, he was promoted major, and assigned as chief of artillery to the department of North Carolina. In April, at the reorganization, he was elected colonel of the Twenty-seventh North Carolina regiment. On being ordered to Virginia his regiment was attached to A. P. Hill’s division, and was first in battle at Seven Pines. After the battle of Sharpsburg, in which he won the admiration of the