Wilcox County soldier's cavalry saber currently housed in Alabama State Archives in Montgomery

Chip Cook with cavalry sword.

I always enjoy hearing from readers and this week I received a nice note from Samuel Calvin Cook IV of Greensboro, North Carolina. Sam, who goes by the nickname “Chip,” is the great-great-grandson of the original Samuel Calvin Cook of Wilcox County, and he is also the last in the family line to carry his name.

The original Samuel C. Cook was a very interesting figure from Wilcox County’s early history. A lawyer before the War Between the States, he joined the Wilcox Dragoons at the beginning of hostilities, served at Pensacola and was eventually promoted to captain before going on to serve on General “Fighting Joe” Wheeler’s staff. After the Confederate surrender, he returned home to Wilcox County and practiced law and served as a state legislator up until the time of his death.

The Wilcox Dragoons was the first cavalry company organized in Wilcox County in 1861 at the beginning of the War Between the States. They became known as Co. C of the 3^rd Alabama Cavalry Regiment when that regiment was formed at Tupelo, Miss. in June 1862. Other companies in the regiment came from Autauga, Calhoun, Choctaw, Dallas, Mobile, Monroe and Perry counties.

The Wilcox Dragoons flag was a 43x55-inch blue silk flag made by the “ladies of Camden” in 1861 and was presented to Samuel Calvin Cook, who had been chosen by the other members of the company to accept the flag on their behalf. Later, J.O. Belknap of Mobile was commissioned to paint scenes in the center of the flag on both sides.

According to documents at the Department of Archives and History in Montgomery, the regiment traveled with the Confederate army into Kentucky and went on to fight at Bramlet’s Station and Perryville. The regiment also fought at Murfreesboro, Shelbyville, Chickamauga, Kingston, Knoxville, Mossy Creek and Strawberry Plains. In the Dalton-Atlanta campaign, the regiment fought at Decatur, near Macon, at Winchester, Aiken, Fayetteville, Bentonville, Raleigh and Chapel Hill. When the Army of Tennessee surrendered in April 1865 at Durham Station, North Carolina, the regiment had been “reduced by its losses to a skeleton.”

Chip Cook, who has been to the Alabama State Archives and held his great-great-grandfather’s cavalry saber, noted that Samuel Cook’s maternal grandfather was John Norwood. Norwood served in the South Carolina militia during the American Revolution. During those historic times, he served with Francis Marion (the famous “Swamp Fox”) and later under Nathanael Greene at the Battle of Eutaw Springs.

The original Samuel C. Cook graduated from Howard College in Marion before the Civil War, and he went on to have a son named Samuel in 1882. (Howard College later moved to Birmingham and changed its named to Samford University.) This Samuel had no junior or suffix in his name initially, but later took “senior” when his father passed away, which was an old custom.

The original Samuel’s grandson carried the name Samuel Calvin Cook Jr., after his father and grandfather. He sometimes went by the name “Cooper,” which was his mother’s maiden name. Cooper also attended Howard and graduated in 1936. He went on to serve in World War II and later had a son, Samuel C. Cook III, who is the father of Chip Cook in North Carolina.

In the end, let me hear from you if you know any additional details about the original Samuel C. Cook. Chip Cook has never been to Camden or Wilcox County, but he hopes to visit one day to see the place that the original Samuel called home. I’ll be happy to pass along to Chip any Cook family history sent to me by readers.