Found on Newspapers.com "...a splendid officer...About as long as a rail, as slim as a snake, as straight as a bean pole and with a bad nasal twang...."
Here's a rare 1906 recollection with the ring of truth, picturing Philip St George Cooke around the time that
Scenes and Adventures in the Army (1857, 1859) was published in Philadelphia. From a Letter to the Editor by H. H. Wilson, published in the Washington, D. C.
National Tribune on July 26, 1906:
... I served in Co. C, 2d U. S. Dragoons, under command of Lieut-Col. Philip St. George Cooke in '56 and '57 in Kansas and in '58 and '59 in Utah. Col. Cooke left Camp Floyd, Utah, early in the Spring of '59 on his famous European trip.
I never saw him again, but remember him very well. He was a splendid officer to those under his command. If any of your readers wish to know what kind of a looking man he was, fancy this picture: About as long as a rail, as slim as a snake, as straight as a bean pole and with a bad nasal twang attached to his voice.
I remember while in Utah our little army was paraded out for a general inspection. I think there were 12 companies of mounted troops in line. When Col. Cooke gave the command, "Draw saber," not a single blade was unsheathed. This was not because we were mutinous, but, on account of his nasal twang, because we did not understand the command.
Whereupon the Colonel straightened himself up and gave the command in clear and distinct language with the addition of, "D'ye understand that, ——— ——— you?" We understood it. It brought the answer.
I do not know when Cooke returned from Europe, but I think Albert Sidney Johnston was in command of the Department of Utah until he resigned to enter the Confederate army—H. H. Wilson, Newell, Pennsylvania
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