A Reluctant Warrior: The Civil War Experience of Stephen J. Cook
By
Harry E. Hobson

This is the story of Private Stephen Josiah Cook, my great-great grandfather. Only after several years of intense interest in Civil War history did I discover I had a "close" relative who served in that conflict. After assembling as much data on Private Cook as I could, the following story unfolded.

Stephen Josiah Cook was born July 16,1831 in Waterford, Pa, a small farm community in northwest Pennsylvania about 12 miles south of Erie. Why he chose to enlist in the Union Army at the age of 31 with a wife and three small children in his care is not documented. One can surmise that Cook, like so many other men at the time, joined to collect an enlistment bounty . *

The 145th Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment was formed in September 1862 as Lee's incursion into Maryland was underway and ordered to the front almost immediately. Company K, Cook's company, was not up to strength so it was delayed for a few more days, leaving Erie on September 11.

The 145th Pa. was attached to the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, 2nd Corps of the Army of the Potomac but due to lack of equipment and training they saw no combat at the Battle of Antietam.

Instead, the regiment was ordered on September 17 to picket duty near the C&O canal.

Following the battle Private Cook and his regiment were assigned the grim duty of burying Antietam's dead.

On the 22nd of September, the 145th rejoined the Army of the Potomac near Harper's Ferry.

Sickness in the unit was rampant and during the fall of'62, more than half the regiment was on sick leave.

The grisly events at Antietam would certainly have given Cook a belly full of war's ugliness.

Also, doubtless annoyed that he had not yet been paid the balance of his bounty , he now had to endure illness and harassment by the veteran Irish Brigade to which the 145th was temporarily assigned. Added to this, Cook surely felt a keen awareness that his wife and children needed him at home. Desertion probably seemed to him the best way to end an intolerable situation.

* Bounty was a much-maligned method of attracting enlistees by paying a specified amount of money, the payment often split among local, state & federal governments.

The opportunity to leave came to Cook on or about November 1, 1862 as the 145th prepared to advance through the Loudoun Valley to Falmouth, Virginia. It was during this time period that Private Stephen J. Cook deserted his unit at Bolivar Heights near Harper's Ferry and made his way back to Pennsylvania and home. F or a time the K Company muster rolls listed Cook as "missing" and then finally as "deserted".

During Cook's absence, the 145th Pa. was heavily involved in two major campaigns although both were decisive Confederate victories. The Battles of Fredericksburg in December 1862 and Chancellorsville in May 1863 saw the unit suffer tremendous losses. Of the 1,460 Officers and men recruited in Erie 8 months before, the 145th began its march north in the spring of 1863 with barely 200.

It was not until June 16, 1863, more than six months after he deserted, Cook was arrested at his home near Wrightsville, Warren County Pennsylvania and taken to the Provost Marshall in Erie.

He was then sent to Pittsburgh on June 19. In March of that year Abraham Lincoln issued an executive order which granted a sort of amnesty to all deserters and AWOLs if they returned to their regiments by April. Only their pay and allowances would be forfeited. If Cook intended to take advantage of the President's gesture he missed his opportunity by six weeks.

A Volunteer Descriptive List dated June 18, 1863 sheds some light as to why Cook deserted:

"Wife nearly blind, has 3 children, eldest 6 years old. Leaves his family in the most destitute circumstances and with few prospects, he being unable from rheumatism to do more than plant a small parcel of corn. Says he left regiment Nov.1 after march from Antietam."

Cook was returned to regimental headquarters to await court martial as the 145th prepared its move toward a fateful battle in southern Pennsylvania.

If he were not in enough trouble already, Cook managed to add fuel to the fire by going AWOL while under arrest at Regimental HQ and was missing during the months of July and August, 1863.

While the l45th suffered heavy losses at Gettysburg, bravely pushing the Confederates through the infamous Wheatfield on July 2, Private Cook had yet to face an enemy in battle.

After the perfunctory pursuit of Lee's Army by the Army of the Potomac, the 145th was transferred to the Fourth Brigade of the 1st Division, Second Corps on July 24 and took up a line along the Rappahannock River in Virginia.

Returning (or returned) to camp in September 1863 as his regiment moved to the Rapidan River , Private Cook was finally charged and tried on the 23rd of that month. The specification: "In this....that he, the said Stephen J. Cook private Co. K 145th Penna.Vols., a duly enlisted soldier in the service of the United States, did desert his Company and Regiment on or about Nov. 1 st 1862 while in Camp at Bolivar Heights near Harper's Ferry Va. and did continue his desertion until arrested by the Provost Martial of Erie Co. Penna. On or about the 21st day of June, 1863."(Signed Sam. A. Snell, Lt. Comd'g. Co. K 145th P.V.)

On September 28, the Court Martial, Lieutenant Colonel A.B. Chapman of the 57th NY Volunteers presiding, handed down its verdict in General Orders No.238: "Stephen J. Cook, Co. K, 145th Pa. Vols. Charge - Desertion, Finding of the Court - Guilty. And the Court does therefore sentence him, Private Stephen J. Cooke as follows; To make good the time lost by his desertion, to forfeit all pay and allowances due him to the 1st of October, 1863 and to have a log weighing twenty (20) pounds securely attached to his leg constantly for two (2) months and to perform fatigue duty when necessary." Would Cook's punishment have been worse had Lincoln's order of amnesty not been issued? Perhaps, but as bad as his military experience had been so far, the war was far from over for Private Cook.

During October and November of 1863, the 145th took part in the Bristoe and Mine Run Campaigns and set up camp near Germanna Ford.

Beginning in the spring of '64 the 145th added 700 to its ranks through successful recruiting back home. With Private Cook marked "present" on the muster rolls, the regiment took part in all the major battles in U.S. Grant's Overland Campaign. From crossing the Rapidan at Germanna Ford in May, Private Cook was present for the desperate battles of The Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor.

Suffering heavy casualties all through the spring and early summer of 1864, the 145th found itself facing Petersburg, Virginia, south of Richmond where a series of command blunders culminated in the capture of Private Cook along with nine officers and 80 enlisted men of the 145th. The officers were sent to various Confederate prisons while the enlisted men were hustled off to the infamous Andersonville Prison in central Georgia.

From his capture on June 16 until his parole, Stephen Cook's lot was doubtless no better than any of the other Andersonville prisoners. His stay there, however, was abbreviated due to Union General Sherman's march from Atlanta. The Confederates were fearful lest the Union Army move to capture the prison. With the release of the inmates the Confederates would be unable to use Union prisoners as exchange chips for the release of their men in Federal prisons. Cook and his fellow inmates were marched north to Florence, South Carolina where a new prison had been built and Andersonville was temporarily closed.

Stephen Cook was paroled on February 27, 1865 at North East Ferry, North Carolina and 13 days later reported to Union officials at Camp Parole, Maryland. This was essentially the end of the war for Private Cook. Suffering from "liver & kidney disease, dyspepsia, chronic diarrhea and piles caused by exposure and improper diet" he was sent home on March 16, by order of the Secretary of War, for a 30-day furlough. Returning to the 145th Pa. camp near Alexandria Virginia, he was mustered out of service with his unit on May 31, 1865. At this time Cook was paid $38.06. That, plus the $25.00 partial bounty paid to him almost 3 years before was all he was paid for his entire army tenure.

In 1880, Stephen J. Cook applied for and received a soldier's pension from the United States Government in the amount of $30.00 per month. It is probable that his months as a POW and good service after the spring of'64 swayed the pension board to grant his pension in spite of his desertion.

Stephen Josiah Cook returned home to Pennsylvania and his wife Martha, two sons-Reuben & William and daughter Emily Annie (my great grandmother). Trying to earn a living as a farmer, the family moved to Rockdale, Pennsylvania where their fourth child, Effie, was born. Later, the Cooks moved to Columbus, Pa. where Son Fred was born and finally to near Findley Lake New York where Minnie was born. [Clint here: I may remember this house, if it was the one occupied by Mother's only full sister, Maude, and her husband George Coe. Or, more likely, great aunt Minnie may have been living in the Cook house which was in another Findley Lake location.]

Stephen Cook died January 13, 1921 at Findley Lake at 90; a ripe old age indeed for one who endured so much illness during his war years.

Daughter Minnie, the youngest and unmarried, cared for her mother until Martha's death on February 25, 1925. Minnie passed away in 1954.

It is said that when writing about a person, especially after much research, the writer sort of takes on the identity of the subject. I was somewhat dismayed by the thought that a relative of mine had shirked his duty to his country . But now I have a different, softer, view of my great-great grandfather. Perhaps because, for a little while, I walked in his brogans.

Clint's added note: I never heard any of this from my mother, not that it was deliberately hidden but was such distant history by the time I was born that it never came up in conversation I guess. Of Josiah S. Cook's children, I have vague memories of my grandmother, Annie Cook Davis Morse, and great aunt, Minnie Cook. Annie's first husband, Davis, my mother's father, was killed in a sawmill accident when mother was a baby. Annie and her second husband, Morse, had a daughter, Eloise.        Return to Home Page