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A.H. Cook
(1843 - 1929)
Home State: New York
Branch of Service: Infantry
Before Antietam
In 1860 he was a 16 year old son of a lumberman, and lived with his parents and younger sisters in Champlain, Clinton County, NY. At 17, giving his age as 18, he enlisted there on 22 May 1861 and mustered as a Private in Company D, 34th New York Infantry on 15 June. He was detailed to the Signal Corps and assigned to the Department of the Shenandoah, date not given.
On the Campaign
On 3 September 1862 he was sent, with Lt. B.N. Miner, to man the signal station on Sugarloaf Mountain, about 4 miles east of the Potomac River and just over 10 miles south of Frederick, MD:
During the night [of 5 - 6 September 1862] the enemy moved his infantry and cavalry toward Frederick from White['s] Ford, advancing by both river and mountain roads. Lieut. Miner retired from his station and sent his flagman, A. H. Cook, to Poolesville to telegraph the fact to Washington. This was the first official information the government had that the rebel army was in Maryland. The next day, Lieut. Miner and his flagman attempted to return to their station ...... and were captured nearby by Confederate cavalry.
The rest of the War
He was held at Libby Prison in Richmond, VA to 5 October 1862, then paroled and at Camp Parole, Annapolis, MD. He was promoted to 4th Corporal, date not given, and returned to duty with his regiment. He mustered out with his Company on 30 June 1863.
After the War
In 1870 he was a retail and wholesale lumber merchant, probably in his father William's (1810-1877) business in Champlain, NY, and he was a grocer there in 1880. He moved to Madison, WI in 1893 and by 1900 and to at least 1905 he was a grocery clerk there. In 1920, then 76 years old, he was a tour guide at the state capitol building in Madison.
References & notes
His basic service from the State of New York1 with details from Brown,2 source of the quote above; Brown also has a considerably post-war photo of him. Maryland Campaign details here quoted from Major Myer's Report. Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860-1900 and 1920, and the Wisconsin State Census of 1905. His gravesite is on Findagrave, source also of his picture here, from a CDV contributed by Chris Van Blargan.
He married Mary C Doolittle (1843-1935) in 1867 and they had 3 children.
He was a publisher of the 3rd and 4th editions of the Wisconsin Capital: Official Guide and History (1920).
Birth
08/20/1843
Death
01/10/1929; burial in Glenwood Cemetery, Champlain, NY
1 State of New York, Adjutant-General, Annual Report of the Adjutant General of the State of New York [year]: Registers of the [units], 43 Volumes, Albany: James B. Lyon, State Printer, 1893-1905, For the Year 1900, Ser. No. 22, pg. 176 [AotW citation 28724]
2 Brown, J. Willard, The Signal Corps, U.S.A. in the War of the Rebellion, Boston: U.S. Veteran Signal Corps Association, 1896, before pg. 233; pp. 241, 748 [AotW citation 28725]