HIS COMPANY WERE KNOWN AS “THE BRACKEN BOYS” AND WOULD PERFORM HEROICALLY AT THE BATTLE OF FRANKLIN ON THE 30TH NOVEMBER 1864.
HE WAS PRESENT AT THE FINAL SURRENDER OF GENERAL JOSEPH JOHNSON AT BENNETT PLACE IN APRIL 1865.
The surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House on the 9th April 1865 is thought by many to be the end of the US Civil War. It was here that Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S Grant and this meeting of the two most famous Generals of the war has somehow become mistakenly associated with the end of the bitter conflict. But just two weeks later another even larger surrender of Confederate soldiers would take place at Durham Cross in North Carolina. General Joseph E. Johnson surrendered his almost 90,000 strong force of Confederate soldiers to Union General William Tecumsah Sherman at a small farm house called Bennett Place. This surrender on 26th April 1865, agreed after two meetings, was the real signal that hostilities were finally at an end. There were several union army regiments present at Bennett Place for this historical moment and among them was the 16th Kentucky Infantry. Within company E of that Regiment was Sergeant Patrick Cooke who was born in Durrow, County Offaly, Ireland in 1831.
Patrick Cooke was born in 1831 and his baptism record can be found in the Parish Register of Durrow, which is a small village near Tullamore in County Offaly, Ireland. Several of his siblings and other members of the wider Cooke family can be found in the baptism and marriage registers during this period. The Cooke family left Ireland in 1850 and originally settled in Hamilton, near Cincinnati, Ohio. Father, James Cook, and his wife Bridget Shaughnessy along with their 6 children and Bridget’s elderly Mother can be found on the 1850 Census records. Their youngest child, Jeremiah, is then only 5 months old and yet is recorded as being born in Ireland. Patrick Cooke is 19 years old at this time and along with his Father and older Brother he is working as a laborer.
DURROW BAPTISMS
10 years later, and by the time of the 1860 US Census, the Cooke family have relocated to nearby Bracken County, Kentucky and are then farming on a decent sized property. While the copy of their census record is very faded and hard to read we can still make out the names of the family members and other details including their birth place. “Kings County, Ireland”, which is the former name of County Offaly, is clearly recorded for each member of the family. For the purposes of our research, this is a very helpful clue in tracing the story of this Offaly family and in particular Patrick Cooke.
With the outbreak of the Civil War in April of 1861 the state of Kentucky initially made attempts to remain neutral in the conflict but that stance changed in September 1861 when Confederate forces violated that neutrality. By October of that year Union regiments were being raised and Army Camps began to appear. Patrick Cooke enlisted on the 29th October 1861 at Camp Kenton, Kentucky and was assigned to Company E of the 16th Kentucky Infantry and again his enlistment records confirm “Kings County, Ireland” as his place of birth. His regiment would mostly remain based close to Camp Kenton until March of 1862 after which time they would move to several different fortifications within the state of Kentucky. In July of 1862 Patrick was promoted to the rank of 1st Corporal and in April of 1863 he is again promoted to the rank of Sergeant.
By early 1864 Patrick and the 16th Kentucky were under the overall command of the renowned Union General William Tecumsah Sherman as he embarked on his Atlanta Campaign which culminated in the Union army seizing that vital Southern city in September of 1864. This victory for the Union cause is a huge turning point in the war and the positivity it engenders into the Northern press and citizens ensures Abraham Lincoln’s re-election as President in November of that year.
After the victory at Atlanta the 16th Kentucky Regiment and Patrick Cooke would be heavily involved in actions at The Battle of Franklin and The Battle of Nashville. These were also two vital battles for the Union cause and both engagements irreparably damaged the Confederates much vaunted Army of Tennessee beyond repair. The 16th Kentucky’s performance at the Battle of Franklin, and in particular Sergeant Patrick Cooke‘s Company E, was praised for its bravery when counter attacking at a vital point of the battle. After these 2 vital victories for the Union Army the 16th Kentucky were re-located to North Carolina as the Civil War was reaching its conclusion culminating in the earlier mentioned surrender of 90,000 Confederate soldiers on the 26th April 1865 at Bennett Place in North Carolina.
As part of the Union force stationed near Bennett Place Sergeant Patrick Cooke, as an Officer in the 16th Kentucky Regiment, would have been involved in processing and issuing paroles & oaths of allegiance to the surrendering Confederate soldiers. Also, as part of the agreed surrender terms, they arranged transportation and rations to help the Confederates get home and in general facilitated their return to civilian life. It would be July 1865 when their work was completed and finally Patrick Cooke and the 16th Kentucky were also free to return to their homes.
Patrick’s life after the war is not as easy to trace but we know he never married and lived with the rest of the Cooke family on their farm in the Bracken area. He worked the farm alongside his Father and siblings. The 1880 US Census records Patrick living with his elderly parents, younger Brother Darby Cooke and Sister, Catherine Cooke in Brooksville, Bracken County. The later 1890 Special Census of Veteran Soldiers, Sailors and Widows again records Patrick Cooke living in Brooksville and also confirms details of his almost 4 years of service in the Union Army during the Civil War.
Patrick Cooke died in March 1904 after a short illness and is buried in the local St. James Cemetery in Brooksville, Bracken County. The Cooke family plot also holds the remains of many of the family who had left Durrow in County Offaly in 1850. It is likely the Cooke Family, like many thousands of others, were escaping the dreaded famine that had enveloped Ireland in the 1840s and a government who refused to help the starving millions. America was then the land of opportunity and freedom and a place where they could rebuild their lives and escape the horrors of starvation. Patrick Cooke from Durrow survived the Great Irish Famine, and remarkably, would also survive another huge historical event of the 19th Century, The American Civil War.
Kevin Guing
19th December 2025
For More on this Soldier: Patrick Cooke – Americasoffalyheroes
**Other References:
Bracken’s Boys – Companies D & E, 16th Kentucky Infantry — Civil War Augusta & Robertson County 16th Infantry Regiment KY, Confederate Surrender at Bennett’s Place (April 17 – 26, 1865) – North Carolina History
Battle Unit Details – The Civil War (U.S. National Park Service) – 16th Kentucky Infantry
L2006 – Google Maps – Durrow, Co. Offaly
