John Esten Cooke

John Esten Cooke (November 3, 1830 – September 27, 1886) was an American novelist, writer and poet. He was the brother of poet Philip Pendleton Cooke. During the American Civil War, Cooke was a staff officer for Maj. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart in the Confederate States Army cavalry and, after Stuart's death, for Brig. Gen. William N. Pendleton. Stuart's wife, Flora, was a first cousin of Cooke.

Early life Born in Winchester, Virginia, on November 3, 1830, Cooke was one of 13 children (five of whom survived childhood) of Bermuda-born planter and lawyer John R. Cooke and Maria Pendleton Cooke. He was born on the family's plantation, "Ambler's Hill," near Winchester, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. He formed a law partnership with his father in 1851 but his writing often interfered with his work. He accompanied the unit to Harpers Ferry in response to John Brown's raid. Stuart was promoted to brigadier general on September 24, 1861.

In March and April 1862, Cooke served as an unpaid volunteer aide for Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart. Cooke was a first cousin of General Stuart's wife, Flora Cooke Stuart. On May 19, 1862, he was formally commissioned as a lieutenant and officially joined Stuart's staff. Cooke participated in the Peninsula Campaign and Stuart's subsequent ride around the Union army of George B. McClellan, later writing a detailed description of the action. Cooke served as an ordnance officer until October 1863. Despite Stuart's secret dislike for Cooke personally, Stuart praised Cooke's service during the Peninsula Campaign and Seven Days' Battles and sought a promotion for him. On June 9, 1863, Cooke and other staff members were drawn into combat at the Battle of Brandy Station.

During the war, Cooke served Stuart as an aide, ordnance officer, and assistant adjutant general, earning the rank of captain. On October 27, 1863, Stuart made Cooke an adjutant in order to put his writing talent to work in catching up on his paperwork.

Although Cooke wrote favorably about Stuart during and after the war, Stuart confidentially told Flora (but not Cooke himself) that he did not like Cooke and found him boring.

Following Stuart's death at Yellow Tavern in May 1864, Cooke served as an adjutant on the staff of Brig. Gen. William N. Pendleton, eventually rising to the rank of major by the end of the war. near Boyce, Virginia, to become a marginally prosperous farmer and gardener as well as an author. The Cookes had three children. To Cooke's great grief, Mary Frances died on January 15, 1878. In 1869 and 1870, Cooke published a trilogy of Civil War novels: Hilt to Hilt: Days and Nights on the Banks of the Shenandoah in the Autumn of 1864; Mohun: or, The Last Days of Lee and His Paladins: Final Memoirs Of A Staff Officer Serving In Virginia. From The Mss. Of Colonel Surry, Of Eagle's Nest; and Hammer and Rapier. His 1870 The Heir of Gaymount was published by John H. Van Evrie, who has been described as America's "first professional racist" and found Cooke to be a useful ally in his efforts to forward white supremacy by publishing relevant novels and poetry.

Even before the end of the war, in 1863, Cooke wrote the first of several popular biographies, Stonewall Jackson: A Military Biography, published in 1876, for which he received some contemporary criticism for the errors in the book. The Cooke Fiction Award is one of three literary prizes given annually by the Military Order of the Stars and Bars.