Wounded Three Times in Battle— and Once by a Guerrilla

By Scott Valentine 

Poinsett Cooper seemed destined to find his calling in the military.

His father, Benjamin, served as a midshipman in the U.S. Navy during the War of 1812 on the sloop of war Hornet, captained by James Lawrence who is remembered for his final command, “Don’t give up the ship.” Cooper’s grandfather, James, served in the American Revolution with “Lee’s Legion,” commanded by Light Horse Harry Lee, father of Robert E. Lee.

Days after the war began in April 1861, 24-year-old Poinsett left home in Brooklyn, N.Y. and spent the next year in two Empire State regiments, the 7th New York State Militia and the 82nd Infantry. He spent much of this time in the Defenses of Washington, D.C.

His relative inactivity changed dramatically in March 1862 when he received a first lieutenant’s commission in Company D of the 42nd New York Infantry, popularly known as the Tammany Regiment. Over the next two years he suffered four wounds.

At Antietam, where the regiment lost 181 officers and men, 52 percent of those engaged, Cooper came out of the battle with a slight wound in his foot.

At Bristoe Station, Va., in October 1863, now a captain and acting inspector general on the staff of Brig. Gen. Alexander S. Webb, a bullet caused a contusion to Cooper’s hip.

During the early part of the Overland campaign in The Wilderness on May 5, 1864, an enemy gunshot severely damaged his right leg. Though surgeons successfully removed the bullet, his ability to walk was impaired for the rest of his days.

Medical personnel sent Cooper to a field hospital for two days, then evacuated him with other wounded to Fredericksburg by ambulance. Cooper shared the ride with one of his fellow officers in the 42nd, Capt. Robert C. Wright of Company G. He had been wounded in the left leg.

Wright revealed what happened next: “While on our way to Belle Plains, the ambulance was attacked by guerrillas,” and that “Cooper was shot in the neck, the bullet lodging in the shoulder.” Wright added that he “saw the wound on the side of the neck … the ball poking out through the shoulder.”

Wright did not provide additional information, leaving unanswered questions about the shooting. He and Wright arrived in Alexandria, Va., on May 12. Friends arrived two days later and took him home to Brooklyn. He recovered and mustered out on July 13, 1864.

Cooper died in 1895 at age 59. His wife, Lillian, and a daughter survived him. His remains rest in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Scott Valentine is a MI Contributing Editor.