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 ^.v..^^e,.*,.v....j "C [May 17, 



Railroad from 1837 to 1840. He entered the U. S. Military Academy at 

 West Point, and graduated in 1845. 



Gen. Cullum, in bis extensive Biographical Register of the Officers and 

 Graduates of the U. S. Military Academy (third edition, 1891, Vol. ii, p. 

 233), gives other particulars of Prof. Copper's short but distinguished 

 military career. He graduated No. 11 in a class of 123. In it were Gen. 

 William F. ("Baldy") Smith, Gen. Thomas J. Wood, Gen. Charles P. 

 Stone, Gen. Fitzjohn Porter, Gen. John P. Hatch, Gen. John W. David- 

 son, Gen. D. B. Sacket, Gen. Gordon Granger, Gen. H. B. Glitz, Gen. 

 William H. Wood, Gen. David A. Russell, Gen. Thomas G. Pitcher, all 

 distinguished in the Union Army in the War of the Rebellion, and Gen. 

 Louis Hebert, Gen. Thomas G. Rhett, Gen. James C. Hawes, Gen. R. C. 

 W. Radford, Gen. Barnard E. Bee, of the Confederate Army. Gen. 

 Cullum says that Coppee, having been appointed Cadet July 1, 1841, and 

 graduating July 1, 1845, became a Brevet Second Lieutenant, Second 

 Artillery, July 1, 1845 ; served at Fort Columbus, N. Y., and became 

 Second Lieutenant, First Artillery, June 18, 1846 ; served in the war with 

 Mexico, was engaged at the siege of Vera Cruz, March 9-29, 1847 ; in the 

 battle of Cerro Gordo, April 17, 18 ; skirmish of La Hoya, June 20 ; of 

 Ocalaca, August 16 ; was promoted to First Lieutenant, First Artillery, 

 August 20 ; engaged in the battle of Contreras, August 19, 20 ; the battle 

 of Cherubusco, August 20 ; was brevetted Captain, August 20, for gallant 

 and meritorious conduct in the battles of Contreras and Cherubusco ; was 

 engaged in the storming of Chapultepec, September 13, 1847, and in the 

 assault and capture of the City of Mexico, September 13, 14, 1847 ; he was 

 Assistant Professor of French at the Military Academy, August 22, 1848, 

 to June 23, 1849, and Principal Assistant Professor of Geography, History 

 and Ethics, June 14, 1850, to May 16, 1855, and resigned from the Army 

 June 30, 1855. His literary work is very extensive : From 1864 to 18<)6, 

 he edited the United States Service Magazine. He wr.Ae Elements of Logic, 

 published in Philadelphia in 1857 ; Gallery of Famous Poets, 1858 ; Ele- 

 ments of Rhetoric, 1859 ; Gallery of Distinguished Poetesses, 1860 ; Select 

 Academic Speaker, 1861 ; Manual of Battalion Drill, 1863 ; Evolutions of 

 the Line, 1863 ; Manual of Court- Martial, 1863 ; Songs of liaise in the 

 Chrixtian Centuries, 1864 ; Life and Services of General U. 8. Grant, 

 1866 ; Manual of English Literature, 1872 ; Lectures on English Literature, 

 considered, as an interpreter of English Bistory, 1872 ; he also edited a 

 translation of Marmont's Esprit des institutions mihtaires, and the Ameri- 

 can edition of the Comte de Paris' Civil Mar in America. 



Prof. Copi ee's most important work is his History of the Conquest of 

 Spain by the Arab Moors, with <r Sketch of the Civilization ivhich they 

 achieved, and imparted to Europe. Published in Boston in 1881, dedi- 

 cated to his infant grandson and namesake, it is the result of studies be- 

 gun when Coppee served as a soldier in Mexico in 1846-1848, and re- 

 newed by a brief visit to Spain in 1870, covering a period not touched by 

 Washington Irving, and not included in Prescott — although both are just 



