Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1877-08-18
UNDER SIX FLAGS.
The Varied Military Service and Interest.
ing Adventures of uens G. J. l.. Cooks

The Varied Military Service and Interest,"
ing Adventures of uenI G. J. L.. C8oISs
The Kansas City ffntes says: 9. ].
L. Cook, who is III the city, is remark
able man. He has served under the
flags of the United States, the Con-
federacy, Mexico, Austria, Egypt and
Cuba, and is now on his way to Mexico
to seek fortune again. He is native of
San Antonio, Texas. His parents were
Germans. In 1854 he was admitted to
the West Point Academy. He was SO
young that his real age was concealed.
He was not more than fifteen years of
age. He graduated ia 1858, was CON-
missioned as second lieutenant of the
Second Dragons, and sent to the from
tier. He later entered the service of the
Confederate government on the staff of
Stonewall jackson, where he was chief
of engineers. After Lees surrender he
accompanied John G. Breckenridge to
Europe, but returned soon afterward,
and entered the Mexican service under
Juarez.
At the close of the year 1866 he found
himself in Mexico. Macmillan was on
his last legs, and the American free
| lance felt no inclination to enter the i'm
perial service. Making his way into
Northern Mexico, he volunteered in
Gen. Escobedo's division in the Liberal
army, and was promoted to the position
of brevet brigadier general. With the
success of the Liberal army he went to
Europe, offered his services to the Aus
trian government, was assigned to SER
vice in the Typographical engineer de-
partment, and went through the short
and disastrous campaign which lost to
Austria and gained to Prussia the con-
troll of the German States. In 1867 he
entered the army of the khedive of
Egypt Soon after entering the service
he had dispute with Gen. Kirby Smith,
which resulted in a duel and his own
resignation. From Egypt he went East,
and circumnavigated the globe. After
his tour round the world, he went to
Cuba, arriving there in July 1868, where
he opened hotel and entered into the
cultivation of tobacco. His hotel be-
came the resort of the revolutionists.
His sympathies being with the patriots,
he was soon an object of suspicion, and
finally his house was burned, and he
barely escaped with his life. He made
his way to the revolutionary army, where
he did some fighting. He was one of
the agents who went to New York to as
sist in raising funds and munitions of
war. It was his fate to be one of the
passengers on the ill-fated Virginius on
her last trip to Cuba, and he was cap
tured with the unfortunate Capt. Fry
and his crew, and taken to Santiago de
Cuba. He was led forth with the doomed
men of the Virginius to be shot, and he
would certainly have been butchered
with the rest had not Sir Lambton Lor-
raine, of the British war ship Niobe,
saved his life. He claimed British pro-
lection, and was one of the two men on
whom the British commander threw the
English ensign.
Next, a schooner named @. J. L..
Cook was purchased and placed under
his command. She was loaded with
war materials, and Cook started again
for Cuba. This time he landed his cargo
on the south coast of Cuba, at the base
of the Sierra Maestro. He remained in
Cuba, and again entered into active SER
vice. 1t was his misfortune to be cap
tured by Spaniards, who caught him
asleep and disarmed him. In the strug-
gle he wounded one of the Spanish SOL
diers, and SO enraged the commanding
officer that he had him stripped and
beaten with an iron ramrod until his
back was raw. They then dressed his
wounds with salt, and imprisoned him
in irons in filthy dungeon. He was
recognized on his arrival in Havana,
tried, and sentenced to be hung June 3,
1875. On the night before the day set
for his execution he succeeded, by the
aid of a Tennesseean, named Adams, in
obtaining a quantity Of drugged wine,
with which he drugged his four guards
inside, and obtained the key to his
shackles. He stabbed and killed two
sentries, and made his escape to a
schooner called the Carrie Mayco, upon
which he was secreted in q hogshead.