Philip H. Cooper

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the English cricketer, see Philip Cooper.

Philip H. Cooper
Rear Admiral
Commands held
Battles/wars
Signature

Superintendent of the United States Naval Academy and as commander-in-chief of the United States Asiatic Fleet
.

Naval career

Cooper was born in

commissioned as an acting ensign on 28 May 1863 and was assigned to the sloop-of-war USS Macedonian, serving as an academy training ship, the same day.[1][2][3]

Due to the wartime requirement for officers in the rapidly expanding fleet, Cooper – ranked fifth in his graduating class – was detached early from the Naval Academy on 1 October 1863 and assigned to the

West Gulf Blockading Squadron in the Gulf of Mexico
for the rest of the Civil War.

Aboard Richmond, he saw action in the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America and in the Battle of Mobile Bay on 5 August 1864.[1][2][3]

After the conclusion of the Civil War, Cooper was assigned to the

Mediterranean aboard her. On 9 September 1870, he became a member of the Tehauntepec and Nicaragua Surveying Expedition.[1][2][3][4]

On 31 May 1871, Cooper detached from the expedition and reported for duty at the

United States Coast Survey office followed, beginning on 28 June 1878.[1][2][3]

Cooper detached from the Coast Survey on 7 November 1878 to take up special duty in the

Norfolk Navy Yard in Portsmouth, Virginia, from 1 April 1886 until 1888. While there, he was appointed on 18 February 1887 as senior member of a board to survey all stores and materials at the navy yard. He served on several general courts-martial during 1889.[1][2][3]

On 22 January 1890, Cooper was ordered back to Swatara for a second tour as her commanding officer, and he took command of her in March 1890. On 30 January 1891, he received orders to detach from Swatara on 7 February 1891. He then served on several courts martial and courts of inquiry during 1891 before being ordered on 18 November 1891 to special duty on the Board on Navy Yard Reorganization.[1][3]

Cooper's next duty was as a member of the

sea trials of the screw steamer USS Essex, the armored cruiser USS New York, the protected cruisers USS Detroit, USS Montgomery, and USS Columbia, and the gunboat USS Bancroft, and was promoted to captain on 11 April 1894.[1][2][3]

Leaving the board, Cooper received command of the protected cruiser

Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy, effective 15 November 1894. He remained superintendent until detached from the Academy on 5 July 1898.[3][5]

On 7 July 1898, Cooper reported to the protected cruiser

fitting out after a lengthy overhaul, and he became her commanding officer when she was recommissioned on 1 December 1898. After detaching from Chicago on 5 October 1899, he took a leave of absence, then received orders on 5 May 1900 to report aboard the battleship USS Iowa as her commanding officer, effective 9 June 1900. He detached from Iowa on 5 March 1901 and awaited orders until his assignment on 7 October 1901 to serve on a court martial at Tutuila in the Tutuila Islands (later American Samoa).[3][6]

Promoted to rear admiral on 9 February 1902, Cooper became the president of a general court martial at

Barnegat, New Jersey, north to the border with Canada and in July 1902 took part in combined U.S. Navy-United States Army maneuvers with his headquarters at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, and using the gunboat USS Hist as his flagship.[3][7][8]

Cooper reported for duty on 6 February 1903 as Senior Squadron Commander in the Asiatic Fleet. On 1 March 1903, he assumed command of the fleet's Southern Squadron and on 2 July 1903 of its Cruiser Squadron. On 21 March 1904, he assumed command of the entire Asiatic Fleet. However, his health went into decline, and on 1[3] or 11[9] July 1904 (sources vary), Cooper detached from the Asiatic Fleet. On 5 August 1904, he retired from the Navy.[3]

Personal life

Cooper's first wife was the former Addie Lou Paine. He married his second wife, Sarah Lawrence Stuart (1851–1881), on 3 October 1871. After she died, he married his third wife, Katherine J. Foote Saltus (1853–1937) on 24 June 1884. He fathered six children, Gerald Cooper (died 1887), Geraldine Cooper (died 1885), Stuart Cooper (1873–1924), Philip Benson Cooper (1877–1956), Dorothy Bradford Cooper Patterson (1889–1972), and Leslie B. Cooper (1894–1944);[

Pennsville, New Jersey in October 1944.[10]

Death

Cooper apparently contracted chronic malaria while in Nicaragua in 1870 and 1871 on the surveying expedition. Repeated bouts of malaria took a toll on his health, which became poor enough in 1904 to force him to relinquish command of the Asiatic Fleet and retire. He returned to the United States but never completely recovered, and died at Morristown, New Jersey, on 29 December 1912 of interstitial myocarditis and general arteriosclerosis.

Cooper is buried at

Evergreen Cemetery
in Morristown.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Hamersly, p. 84.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Naval History and Heritage Command: Officers of the Continental and U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-1900.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l United States Naval Academy Nimitz Library Special Collections & Archives: Guide to the Philip H. Cooper Papers, 1860-1984
  4. ^ Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships: Sabine I
  5. ^ Hamersly, pp. 84–85.
  6. ^ Hamersly, p. 85.
  7. ^ Anonymous, "Admiral Cooper May Stay at Newport," The New York Times, July 17, 1902.
  8. ^ Anonymous, "Admiral Cooper Transferred: Ordered to Command of Southern Division of Asiatic Station," The New York Times, December 25, 1902.
  9. ^ Tolley, p. 318.
  10. ^ gendisasters.com Pennsville, NJ Training Plane Crash, Oct 1944

References

  • Naval History and Heritage Command: Officers of the Continental and U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-1900.
  • United States Naval Academy Nimitz Library Special Collections & Archives: Guide to the Philip H. Cooper Papers, 1860-1984
  • Hamersly, Lewis Randolph. The Records of Living Officers of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, Seventh Edition, New York: L. R. Hamersly Company, 1902.
  • Tolley, Kemp, Yangtze Patrol: The U.S. Navy in China, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1971
    ISBN 1-55750-883-6
    .

External links
Military offices
Preceded by
Superintendent of United States Naval Academy

15 November 1894-5 July 1898 		Succeeded by
Frederick V. McNair Sr.
Preceded by Commander-in-Chief, United States Asiatic Fleet
21 March 1904–1 or 11 July 1904 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Philip_H._Cooper&oldid=1161098852"