John Cook
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, 13-year-old John Cook enlisted as a bugler in the 4th United States Artillery Regiment at the outbreak of the Civil War. On September 17, 1862, at the Battle of Antietam, by then aged 15, he earned his place in history. Cook’s battery section had been ordered to support the attack of general John Gibbon’s division up the Hagerstown Pike. As the battery reached its assigned position and began to unlimber, a column of Rebels unexpectedly emerged from the nearby West Woods and poured a devastating volley that immediately felled most of the section and pinned down the survivors with withering rifle fire.
When Cook’s captain was shot off his horse and seriously injured, the lad sprang into action. Dragging his wounded commander to safety, Cook returned to the battery section and discovered that all the cannoneers had been struck down. Spotting a dead comrade lying with a full pouch of ammunition, he unstrapped it from the corpse and rushed to the guns, which were in danger of being captured by advancing Confederate infantry.
Displaying remarkable valor and heroism as he serviced the guns, Cook proved instrumental in beating back three separate enemy attempts to charge and capture the exposed guns, the last charge coming within 5 yards of the cannons before recoiling. As Cook was engaged in his heroics, the division’s commander, general Gibbon, saw what was happening and rushed to the endangered battery. Ignoring rank during the emergency, the general pitched in as a common artilleryman and personally took part in the fighting, servicing one of the guns as a cannoneer until the threat receded.
In recognition of his conspicuous courage that day, Cook was (eventually and belatedly) awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1894. A year after his heroism at Antietam, Cook again displayed exceptional valor, this time at the Battle of Gettysburg. Serving as a messenger, he frequently ran to and fro across a half-mile stretch of open ground that was swept by enemy fire in order to deliver his messages. In addition, he also helped destroy an artillery caisson in order to prevent its capture by advancing Rebels.
After the war, Cook settled in Washington, DC, and joined the federal civil service as an employee of the Government Printing Office. He died in 1915, a week shy of his 68th birthday, and was interred in Arlington National Cemetery.