Poinsett Cooper

In 1860 he was a 23 year old bank clerk living with his recently widowed mother and sister in Brooklyn, NY. He enlisted in New York City as a Private in Company F, 7th New York State Militia on 17 April 1861 and mustered out with them on 3 June. He enrolled again, as 2nd Lieutenant of Company G, 82nd New York Infantry (formerly 2nd NY State Militia) on 22 October 1861 and was discharged on 10 January 1862. He signed-up again, and mustered as First Lieutenant, Company D, 42nd New York Infantry on 18 March 1862.

He was wounded in the foot in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

He was promoted to Captain on 31 October 1862 (to date from 28 September) and was on General Alexander Webb's staff as acting Assistant Inspector-General at Gettysburg in July 1863. He was wounded again, slightly, by a gunshot to his right hip at Bristoe Station, VA on 14 October 1863, and, more seriously, in his right leg above the ankle in the Wilderness, VA on 5 May 1864. After 2 days on the field he was in an ambulance on the way to a hospital near Fredericksburg when he was shot again, in the neck, by "guerrillas." By 12 May he was in a hospital in Alexandria, VA, then furloughed home. He mustered out with his Company on 13 July 1864 in New York City.

He lived in Brooklyn and later Manhattan, NY and was proprietor of the Metropolitan Express Company by 1880. He began receiving a veteran's disability pension in 1871.

His service from the State of New York.1. His wounding at Antietam also in a casualty list in the New York Daily Herald of 25 September 1862. Personal details from his bio sketch from Green-Wood Cemetery, family genealogists, and the US Census of 1860 and 1880. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a photograph in the Medford (MA) Historical Society Civil War Photograph Collection.

He married Lillian Walton (1847-1910) in 1864 and they had 2 children.

11/05/1836; New Haven, CT

02/08/1895; Manhattan, NY; burial in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY