Wickliffe Cooper

Robert Wickliffe Cooper (October 19, 1831 – June 8, 1867) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander of the American Civil War. He rarely used his real first name and thus appears in most documents as Wickliffe Cooper.

Early life
Robert Wickliffe Cooper was born in Lexington, Kentucky. He was the son of the Rev. Spencer Cooper, Jr. (1787–1839) and his wife Mary H. Burton (1795–1869). Wickliffe Cooper was the twelfth child, and the third and youngest son born to his parents, who produced 14 children in all. Wickliffe Cooper's father was an ardent member of the Whig party.

Wickliffe Cooper attended Dickinson College in Pennsylvania for two years before the Civil War began.

Military career
Cooper enlisted in the army at Louisville, Kentucky in 1861 at the outbreak of the Civil War and was commissioned as second lieutenant in the 20th Kentucky Infantry. At the Battle of Shiloh he was cited for "bravery to the point of rashness" in an official report, and at the Battle of Richmond (August 1862), he was singled out for honors by a Union Army general. Cooper was then recommissioned as lieutenant-colonel of the 4th Cavalry Regiment in March 1863 and became a colonel the following month. He became the commander of the 4th Kentucky Cavalry (Union) on April 14, 1863 following the resignation of Col. Bayles.

While serving as commander of the Fourth, Wickliffe Cooper took part in several major campaigns, including Sherman's March to the Sea and Wilson's Raid in Alabama and Georgia.

In 1866 Wickliffe Cooper was rewarded with an appointment as 2nd Major of the newly formed 7th Cavalry under General George Armstrong Custer.

During Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock's expedition against the Cheyenne, the men of the Seventh spent an extended period on the open prairie, searching for Indians, and during that time Wickliffe Cooper ran out of whiskey. This apparently caused him to experience serious withdrawal symptoms, with the result that he became delirious, pulled his service revolver and shot himself in the head, directly between the eyes. He died immediately at age 35 on June 8, 1867 near Medicine Lake Creek, Nebraska. Gen. Custer was informed of Cooper's suicide by officer Edward Myers, and Custer then used Cooper as an example to the rest of his men, warning them of the "consequences of excessive drinking." His death was initially ruled suicide, but the cause of death was later changed to "died by hand of person or persons unknown" by the United States War Department in 1885, nearly twenty years after his death, so his widow (who had been pregnant at the time of his death) could receive his pension.

Wickliffe Cooper and his wife are buried together in Lexington Cemetery, Lexington, Kentucky.

Marriage and family
On June 28, 1865, as noted above, Wickliffe Cooper married Sarah Steele "Sallie" Venable in Shelby County, Kentucky. Sarah Venable was born in Shelby County on August 28, 1841 in Shelby County; she died March 19, 1888 at age 46. Wickliffe and Sarah had one daughter, Mary Wickliffe Cooper (born July 2, 1867, died December 1, 1938). She became an artist with a national reputation.