Roseugarten.] OUU [May 17, 



all who knew liim. During the war he was commissioned a colonel upon 

 the staff of Governor Curtin, and was then chief of staff to Gen. Couch 

 when on the way to Gettysburg. 



Gen. Couch writes of him as follows : "Prof. Coppee came to Harris- 

 burg about the 20lh of June, with otlier Pennsylvanians, prepared to 

 organize for the defense of the State against the invasion of Lee. I was 

 very glad to see the Professor, and at once sent him towards Altoona in 

 order to keen me advised of affairs in that portion of my department. He 

 was recalled to Harrisburg on the 24th of June and appointed by me Mili- 

 tary Secretary with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel ; of course I had no 

 authority to issue commissions, but the exigencies of the hour demanded 

 extreme measures. The Colonel's military education and field experience 

 in Mexico admirably fitted him for the position. I now recollect back 

 thirty two years, with the anxiety of those momentous days, with an army 

 of new half-armed men and seemingly every burden placed upon my 

 shoulders, that Col. Coppee, with patience and diligence, served the pub- 

 lic cause with the earnestness and loyalty of a veteran of the army of the 

 Potomac. On the 10th of July the Colonel accompanied me when De- 

 partment Headquarters were established at Chambersburg, and continued 

 on duly until the 15th of the same month, the day after Lee had with- 

 drawn his army to Virginia. The exigencies which demanded the 

 Colonel's services having ceased to ezlst, he returned to his home in Phila- 

 delphia." 



He was a regent of the Smithsonian Institution for twenty-one years, 

 Lecturer on International Law in Union University Law School, Albany, 

 N. Y., 1875, 1876, and was very active in the councils of the Episcopal 

 Church, of which he was an ardent member. As Senior Warden of the 

 Church of the Nativity, South Bethlehem, delegate to the Diocesan and 

 General Conventions, as member of the committee which prepared the 

 Hymnal, and in many other capacities, lie gave his best thought and ser- 

 vice to the church of his love. 



The space of this memoir will not permit one to really go over in out- 

 line the wide activities of this noble life, whose absence is now so keenly 

 felt; and there are other relations of life, which show in a still higher 

 degree his grand qualities, which ought not to be mentioned here, as 

 being too sacred for public discussion. Those who have known of his 

 high-mindedness in all things, his generous friendliness to all who 

 claimed his sj^mpathy and his assistance, are well aware that a splendid 

 soul has gone from us to his well-earned reward. One thing ought not to 

 be forgotten. When you travel through some dense and lofty forest you 

 cannot help noticing how the trees on every side sliow a lack of sym- 

 metry, now gnarled and bent, now dwarfed and stunted. But when you 

 gain the open glade and see some magnificent giant of the wood lifting its 

 head high in the air with perfect proportion and luxuriant foliage, the 

 contrast is very striking, and the beauty of the one is made all the more 

 apparent from the imperfection of the other. And so it is with character. 



