Valley of the Shadow
The War Years
Spring 1861–Spring 1865

Letters & Diaries

letters

Jeremiah Cooper (1862)

Before the war, Jeremiah Cooper lived with his father Jeremiah and mother Catharan and his younger siblings in Waynesboro, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Cooper worked as a shoemaker, following the craft of his father. Several months after the beginning of the war, in September 1861, Cooper enlisted as a private in Company A of the 77th Pennsylvania. He served as fife major and principal musician until his capture at Chickamauga in September 1863. After his release from prison in April of the following year, he returned to the army. Cooper probably survived his term of service in the Union army, but by 1870 he had either died or moved away from Franklin County.

The following links provide access to the most likely matches in the Valley of the Shadow databases:

Cooper Household

In this letter to Lt. George D. Schott, probably written after the Battle of Seven Pines in 1862, Cooper writes about his sicknesses and about the possible deaths of other soldiers in a recent battle.