Michigan in the Civil War
Cook, Sullivan, 1834-1903.
Sixty-seven short, almost daily, letters written to his wife (Sept. 8,1862-Jan. 27, 1863) while he was serving in Company I, 1st U.S. Sharpshooters. He is concerned chiefly with home affairs, but makes comments on camp life and activities, officers, hospitals and care of the sick, food and its cost, foraging, boxes from home, and his duties. He was probably discharged in February, 1863 because of disability.
In later life Cook, a farmer, founded the Hartford (Mich.) Alliance, was a candidate for Congress (1894), and for Governor of Michigan on the Populist ticket (1898). He was a gifted orator and also a sportsman and woodsman, writing articles for Forest and Stream.
Cook's papers include three letters written by Albert G. Austin of Thompkins, Mich., to his sister, Mrs. Sullivan Cook, early in 1863. He makes comments on doctors and drunkenness; officers, food, sickness and death in camp, marches, and how to end the war. He was in Company K, 1st U.S. Sharpshooters, 1862-1864, wounded at Chancellorsville in May of 1863, and transferred to Company I, 5th Michigan Infantry in December of 1864.
Also one letter written by Orlen P. Cook to his brother Sullivan, July 30, 1863, in which he states that he has been relieved of detective duty and is now in the Provost Marshal's office of the 5th District of Kentucky. He wants to go into the Invalid Corps on garrison duty. Cook was a corporal in Company G, 25th Michigan Infantry, 1862-1863, and discharged for disability in September, 1863.