Who is this person?

[L Verge]

Thank you, Steve, for the information, and I am passing it along to the Mosby researchers. So far, none of them are aware of Harry Cooke (or his legal name of Horatio Green Cooke).

While I happen to be a fan of Mosby and his Rangers, I suspect that (if Cooke's story is true) it is not something that Mosby's biographers over the years would want to include in their writings. That gap in his records, however, is quite suspicious, and I wonder if Lincoln's Federal Scouts remained anonymous, much like the Confederate Underground.

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Regarding Oldroyd, Dr. Wayne Temple writes about him in his book entitled By Square and Compass: Saga of the Lincoln Home. Possibly there are some observations in there that are unavailable in any other source.

Thanks, Roger, I just passed this on to Al Hunter.

Here's a reply from the Mosby scholars:

Hello, Laurie..........

Neither of my Mosby buddies, Don Hakenson nor Eric Buckland, have or found anything on Cooke. From what I know about Colonel Mosby and/or his Ranger biographers would not have shied away from writing about an incident involving Cooke, especially if they found a document on him signed by Pres. Lincoln. That would have been a story worth telling, and I can assure you that they recorded incidents far worse and more graphic than a run-in with a spy.

My guess is that either this didn't happen or that it happened but the men who captured him told him they were Mosby's Rangers and left the clear impression that he and his buddies were in deep trouble. That he and his buddies escaped is also significant, but I'm guessing the Rangers would have had someone up at night to watch them, esp. if they had a dedicated spy in their midst. None of us was able to run this down, so the options I just mentioned are most likely the primary possibilities of what happened. The mists of time may have obscured the truth.

All good things..........


Dave