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274 Punctiliously and unceasingly he daily discharged the great duties of his office, and at night, when others sought relaxation and rest, in a room in his private residence, his work was steadily carried forward. At the termination of the war, General Cooper returned to his country seat near Alexandria, Virginia, to find his home in ruins.

His house had been torn down and destroyed by the Federal troops, and upon the eminence, in its stead, a Federal fort had been erected.

Adding to another house, which before the war had been his manager's, the remaining years of the old hero were quietly and peacefully passed. General Cooper died upon the 3d of December, 1876, in the seventy-eighth year of his age.

"Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

For many years before his death he was a conscientious and consistent communicant of the Episcopal church. His bereaved family can indeed find consolation, in their irreparable loss, in the belief: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

April 5th, 1877.

General

My Dear Sir—I am gratified to know that you have undertaken to make a record of the services and virtues of a man than whom none has higher claims upon the regard of all who loved the Confederacy. No one presents an example more worthy of the emulation of the youth of his country. My personal acquaintance with General Cooper began at the time when he was associated with Mr. Poinsett in the War Office, where his professional knowledge was made available to the Secretary, in those army details of which a civilian was necessarily but little informed. His sterling character and uniform courtesy soon attracted the attention and caused him to be frequently resorted to by members of Congress having business with the War Office. Ex-President Pierce, who was then a Senator, spoke in after years of the favorable impression which General Cooper had made upon him, and said his habit had been when he "wanted information to go to