Faces of the Civil War: An Album of Union Soldiers and Their Stories

“A Better Man Never Lived”

202 1st Lt. James Matthews Cooper, Company A, Thirty-third Iowa Infantry Carte de visite by unidentified photographer, about 1864 203 “A Better Man Never Lived” 1st Lt. James Cooper was beside himself with excitement when the news came in to Union headquarters at Mobile, Alabama , on the morning of May 27, 1865, that Confederate Lt. Gen. E. Kirby Smith307 had surrendered his forces in Texas. The last gray army in the field was no more and the rebellion was over. Now his regiment’s plans to go to the Lone Star State to bring down Kirby Smith’s army could be cancelled. He and his men were going home. Cooper jumped on his horse and rode off to tell the rank and file. At 11 a.m., he was galloping along the line of the brigade, announcing the surrender. The relieved men exploded with lusty cheers and began firing their weapons in celebration.308 Cooper served with the Thirty-third Iowa Infantry for most of his enlistment, joining as a sergeant and working his way to first lieutenant of Company A, whose members regarded him as “a first class soldier.” “He was our best officer—always ready for duty,” remembered a corporal, “he used to be around on duty when he shouldn’t have been—boys tried to get him to go to hospital but he wouldn’t.”309 In March 1865, he was detached from the Thirtythird to serve as an aide-de-camp to Col.Conrad Krez,310 a brigade commander gearing up his men to fight in the upcoming campaign against the port city of Mobile. On March 27, 1865, Krez’s troops moved in with other federal units to assault Spanish Fort, Alabama. During the fight, Cooper rode off to the brigade’s right flank with instructions to move one regiment forward. He delivered the order and watched as the intended movement was executed. An enemy artillery shell burst close by, his horse recoiled and wheeled, and Cooper crashed to the ground, left shoulder first, severely injuring his left arm. He went to the regimental hospital but not much could be done, so he 204 returned to duty, his arm practically useless. He mustered out with the regiment in July 1865 and returned to his farm and family in Marion County, Iowa. His life after the war was difficult. His left arm remained paralyzed . His marriage dissolved in the 1870s, and he moved into the home of a daughter, where he died in 1915 at eighty-seven. The Rev. Michael Harned,311 who had been a private in Cooper’s company , presided at the funeral. Cooper’s daughter notified the pension office of her father’s passing. In her letter she wrote, “a better man never lived.”312 ...