Giles Buckner Cooke

He is best known for his service on the personal staff of Gen. Robert E. Lee during the Siege of Petersburg and the closing months of the active existence of the Army of Northern Virginia.

He matriculated at the Virginia Military Institute in 1855, where records show repeated disciplinary infractions for absence from barracks without leave, assault, battery, and drunkenness.

[1] Cooke, during his time in the officer corps of the Confederate States of America, saw senior staff service and active combat in both Virginia and the Western theater.

In October 1864 he was assigned to serve as assistant adjutant and inspector general, with the rank of major, of the Army of Northern Virginia.

Cooke assisted Lee during the Siege of Petersburg and attempted to continue this service during the final retreat from Richmond, but was wounded on April 6, 1865, at the Battle of Sailor's Creek.

[1] After surviving a severe illness early in his Confederate service, Cooke was baptized into the Christian faith in July 1861.

[2] After his army service ended in April 1865, Cooke returned to Petersburg and began to study to become a teacher and Episcopal priest.

Cooke then served in a series of pulpits and educational leadership positions in Maryland, Kentucky, and Virginia from 1885 through 1917, being named a convocational dean in 1898.

In his retirement, Cooke was granted various honors consistent with his status as an ordained minister and survivor of the senior Southern officer corps.