1st Volunteers

First Lieutenant Charles Betts Cook

Company H (the “Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry”), 1st Regiment N.C. Volunteers

2.12 Charles Betts Cook, a twenty-six-year-old Cumberland County resident, enlisted in the “Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry on April 17, 1861. He was promoted to second lieutenant on May 21, eight days after the company joined the 1st Regiment N.C. Volunteers as Company H. During the Battle of Big Bethel, June 10, 1861, Lieutenant Cook commanded a detachment that helped repulse an attack on the southeast angle of the Confederate fortifications. Cook was discharged when the six months enlistment of Company H expired in November 1861.

In May 1862 Cook enlisted as a private in Company A, 63rd Regiment N.C. Troops (5th Regiment N.C. Cavalry). He was promoted to second lieutenant in June 1862 and to first lieutenant in October. Cook resigned in July 1864 because of “rheumatism and spinal affliction.”

Cook is clad in a single-breasted dark blue frock coat with additional button rows on the outside of each breast, as mandated in the uniform regulations of the “Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry.” His full dress attire includes gold-bullion epaulets, officer’s sash, and Hardee hat with feathers and tassel. The sword is the artillery officer’s sword with counterguard, a type manufactured ca. 1821-1850.

Image: N.C. Office of Archives and History.

Source Note:
Durham, “The Grand Review”; Manarin et al., North Carolina Troops, 2:374, 3:41; Mast, State Troops and Volunteers, 1:80; Peterson, The American Sword, 110-111.