A Life of Gen. Robert E. Lee

John Esten Cooke

John Esten Cooke was an American novelist, writer and poet. He was the brother of poet Philip Pendleton Cooke. During the American Civil War, Cooke was a staff officer for Maj. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart in the Confederate States Army cavalry and, after Stuart's death, for Brig. Gen. William N. Pendleton. Stuart's wife, Flora, was a first cousin of Cooke.