ELIAS M. COOK -- 96th INFANTRYBURIED IN NEW BERN NATIONAL CEMETERY - Elias M. Cook was one of theoriginal 64 privates who was in Captain Joseph Nichols' Company C of the96th Infantry. He enlisted on December 18, 1861, after he wasrecruited by his captain, and was mustered in five days later inPlattsburgh.The regiment organized in Plattsburgh with companies from Clinton,Essex, Franklin and Warren Counties. It left for Washington the nextMarch and was in the field participating in the Siege of Yorktown inmid-April. They had sailed to Fortress Monroe on the peninsula betweenthe James and York River and by April 17, 1862, had marched 20 milesnorth to begin the siege.After the siege the regiment began is march ups the peninsula and wasengaged in four battles in May before they were in the Battle of FairOaks on May 31st.Their sister company, Company G, started the march with over 70 men andarrived at Fair Oaks with only 18 men fit for duty, and, according to,"The Military and Civil History of Essex County," By Winslow Watson,Company C was in a similar condition. The reasons he gave were disease,hard service and malarious climate. In the two months they had been inVirginia, they had marched about 90 miles and had been in severalbattles.Several more battles, including the Seven Days' Battles occurred beforethey were ordered to the North Carolina Coast in December. While the96th was in North Carolina, Elias must have committed some majorinfraction. He was court martialed and sentenced by General CourtMartial to be confined for the rest of his 3-year enlistment starting onJune 20, 1863. The place of confinement was Fort Macon on a barrierisland on the coast. He contracted chronic diarrhea and was taken toBeaufort, NC, a couple of miles away on the mainland where he died onSeptember 2, 1863. He was buried in the cemetery in New Bern 40 miles tothe north, which, in 1867, became New Bern National Cemetery.Elias' wife, Lucy Chamberlain, applied for a Widow's Pension at the endof October. She died the next January and the next May, a pension fortheir only child, Sanford Elias Cook, was granted, administered by NoahH. Chamberlain, her father, who later moved to South Dakota. Sanford,known as "Santie" died in South Dakota in 1947.
