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1/6 PLATE AMBROTYPE - THOMAS SIMPSON COOPER 48th TENNESSEE

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This sixth-plate cased ambrotype comes from the collection of Ray Richey, President of the Texas Civil War Museum in Fort Worth, and has a family identification as Thomas Simpson Cooper of Tennessee. Cooper was from Maury County and had service in the 48^th Tennessee. The image looks like him in a postwar photo on a cemetery website, but to our eye the sitter looks even more like his brother Albert Gallatin Cooper in a photo on the same site. It could be simply a family resemblance, but the look and pose are so similar it may be the family was mistaken about which brother this is (they also thought he had been in the 3^rd TN.) The identification as Albert also explains why the sitter wears gray, double breasted officer’s style coat. We find Thomas only as an enlisted man, but Albert had service under Nathan Bedford Forrest as Lieutenant Colonel of Biffle’s 19^th (also 9^th) Tennessee Cavalry.

The figure is shown seated, from the knees up and, as is typical of the era, is posed resting one elbow on the covered table next to him. He wears a double-breasted gray frock coat with the buttons widely spaced both vertically and horizontally, touched lightly with gold by the photographer to indicate they are gilt brass. His uppermost button is not fastened, allowing the lapel to open a bit and the collar to lie flat. He wears his hair rather short, but sports a rather bushy beard.

Thomas Simpson Cooper was one of ten brothers who joined the Confederate army. He enlisted as a private 11/27/61 for 12 months service in Captain Whiteside’s Company (Company C and then Co. H) of Voorheis’ 48^th Tennessee. Much of that regiment was captured at Fort Donelson in February 1862 and eventually exchanged. In the meantime those not captured were in a “48^th” under Nixon. Cooper’s name appears in both units, indicating he avoided capture at Donelson, likely because of illness. His service records, such as they are, show him hospitalized at least from March through August 1862, present on the January-February 1863 roll, and then absent on sick leave in Maury County from April 20. His record fades out after the November-December roll, where he is listed as still absent from the 48^th, but having joined a cavalry unit.

If he joined a cavalry unit, it may have been Biffle’s 19^th Regiment, in which his brother Albert Gallatin Cooper (1817-1883) was Lieutenant Colonel. Albert had seen service in the Seminole War as private and corporal in Hamilton’s company of the 1^st TN Mounted Militia from June 16, 1836, to January 14, 1837. He enlisted again May 1846, serving as sergeant and then captain in the First Regiment of Tennessee Mounted Infantry from May 1846 to May 1847. He enlisted again and was commissioned Lieutenant Colonel of the 19^th TN Cavalry, also referred to as the 9^th, on October 1, 1862, serving until resigning for health reasons Dec. 13, 1864. While he was with it the regiment served under Forrest and Wheeler, fighting at Jackson, Parkers Crossroads, Thompson’s Station, Brentwood,Chapel Hill, Savannah, and Chickamauga under Forrest. It saw action in the Atlanta Campaign and was with Forrest again for his raid into middle Tennessee in late September 1864 and fought at Spring Hill and Franklin in November. For a good part the unit’s service Biffle was in brigade command, so there is good reason to suppose Cooper was commanding the regiment.

We show both the images of Albert and Thomas from the find-a-grave website. The one of Albert is not the best quality, but looks very much like our man in appearance and pose. In either case, he is from a well-known Confederate family in the county. One secondary source says that of the ten brothers in the service two were killed and three died of wounds.  [SR] [ph:L]

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