Death Strikes Again, Leaving But Five Names Upon Rolls of Once Large Confederate Camp.
The hand of time struck another name from the roster of Sterling Price Camp, United Confederate Veterans, so that when the organization meets Sunday at the courthouse the roll call will be brief - five names.
Joseph Phillips Cooper, 90, of Company E., Thirtieth Alabama Infantry, who lived at 2824 Lee, rejoined Gen. Robert E. Lee’s immortal army last week when the invisible bugler called him while he was visiting a daughter, Mrs. Milliard McGalliard of Argyle, Denton County. The body was taken to Waxahachie, his former home, for burial.
The five who are left in Sterling Price Camp are T.A. Rains, Company C., Twenty-Sixty Tennessee Infantry; J.J. Ellis, Wilson’s Company, Georgia; W.W. Gant, Company D., Fourth Mississippi Cavalry; Dr. W.H. Montgomery, Company D., Third Kentucky Cavalry; and D.M. Yeary, Company B., Sixty-Fourth Virginia Cavalry.
Leaves 46 Descendants.
To immortalize his history which reached its zenith when he alone escaped alive among a score of soldiers over whom a shell burst at the battle of Resaca, Ga., Mr. Cooper left forty-six living descendants.
Besides his wife, Mr. Cooper is survived by five daughters, Mrs. Woody Lavender, Ore City; Mrs. W.C. Odom, Brownwood; Mrs. Milliard McGalliard, Argyle; Mrs. M. Moody, Mullins; Mrs. Olin Keitt, Hubbard; three sons, J.W. Cooper, Dallas; C.H. Cooper, Corpus Christi; Hardage Cooper, Fort Worth; a brother, W.L. Odell, Hubbard, and twenty grandchildren and eighteen great-grandchildren.
Lost Arm in War.
As fifteen year old Joe Cooper, the veteran became a private in his Alabama regiment and fought in the front lines through many historical encounters before the battle of Resaca. There his left arm was blown off. He went to Tupelo, Mississippi, married there, and in 1875 he brought his bride to Texas in a covered wagon. They settled in Ellis County where Mr. Cooper served as District Clerk from 1884 to 1902. In 1917, he moved to Farmersville and in 1929 to Dallas. His home was at 2824 Lee.
Mr. Cooper was born on his father’s plantation in South Carolina on Jan. 16, 1847.
Source: The Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas, Sunday, August 8, 1937; Pgs. Front Page & continued Pg. 13
