Joseph Alexander Cooper Joseph Alexander Cooper ( November 25 , 1823 – May 20 , 1910 ) was an American farmer , soldier , and civil servant . He briefly served in the United States Army during the Mexican – American War , and later he was a Union Army general during the American Civil War , fighting most notably during the 1864 Battle of Nashville . Early life . Cooper was born in 1823 on a farm in Whitley County , Kentucky near Cumberland Falls . He and his parents moved to Campbell County , Tennessee the following year . He grew up in Campbell County , and married Mary J . Hutson in April 1846 . In 1847 Cooper served in the U . S . Army during the Mexican – American War , enlisting as a private in the 4th Tennessee Infantry in August and mustering out that October . After the war ended he returned to Campbell County , and was involved in farming near Jacksboro , Tennessee . Civil War service . When the American Civil War began in 1861 , Cooper chose to follow the Union cause . He was elected a delegate to the 1861 Union convention at Knoxville . He next spent a few months recruiting men from his county . Then in April Cooper was sworn into service to the Union as a captain in the 1st Tennessee Infantry at Whitesburg , Kentucky . Cooper was promoted to the rank of colonel on August 8 , 1861 . After fighting at Wild Cat Mountain and Mill Springs under Brig . Gen . George H . Thomas , he was given command of the 6th Tennessee Infantry on May 18 , 1862 . He would lead the 6th Tennessee throughout the year and into the summer of 1863 . Cooper fought in the battles of Stones River and Chickamauga , and the Chattanooga Campaign . After joining the army of Maj . Gen . William Tecumseh Sherman in the Atlanta Campaign , he was promoted to brigadier general on July 30 , 1864 . He commanded a brigade of the 2nd Division of the XXIII Corps from June 4 until he temporarily obtained divisional command following the Battle of Jonesborough . He was again in command of his brigade , and intermittently commanded the 2nd Division during the Franklin - Nashville Campaign . He also commanded the brigade during the Battle of Bentonville . He was appointed a brevet major general in the Union Army for his service throughout the war , in partivcular for his actions at Nashville . Cooper was mustered out on January 15 , 1866 . Postbellum . In 1868 Cooper ran for the U . S . Senate from Tennessee , but his bid was unsuccessful . Next year , he was rewarded by U . S . President Ulysses S . Grant with the sinecure of collector of internal revenue for the Knoxville District . Cooper held this position from 1869 to 1879 . He later was enlisted by William Gannaway Brownlow , Governor of Tennessee , to quell the forces of the Ku Klux Klan disturbance in the state . In 1880 he moved to Stafford County , Kansas , where he became involved in farming . On April 3 , 1891 , Cooper was wounded in the city of Larned in Pawnee County when he was struck by a railroad car while . He died in Stafford , Kansas in May 1910 , and was buried in Knoxville National Cemetery . Religion . Cooper was a Baptist . He was a deacon of the Baptist Church for more than thirty - five years . He was also a long time moderator of the South Central Baptist Association of Kansas .