The Cook Mysteries 

When I wrote Photographer... Under Fire the Story of George S. Cook (1819 –1902), I submitted it to the publisher knowing there were still mysteries to be solved about George S. Cook. History is never finished; there are always more mysteries to any history.

When you read Photographer ... Under Fire, you may wonder:

• Who was George S. Cook? Who were his parents, where did they live, and why or how was he orphaned?
• Why are the records, which do exist of George S. Cook after 1861, shrouded mostly in mystery? (Where was he and what was he doing?)
• Where is the grave of George S. Cook’s wife, Elizabeth, who died April 1864? Where are cemetery records of proof?
• George S. Cook’s house (photo is on the home page), 28 South Battery, Charleston, South Carolina (frequently featured in Charleston tours), is pictured in a framed photograph presently hanging over the fireplace mantle. (We cannot show the picture since we do not own the copyright.) The columns of the house are draped in black. The tour guides tell people the house was draped for the death of Abraham Lincoln. I don’t believe a house in Charleston in 1864 would have been draped in honor of a man from the North, even if he were President of the United States. I have another theory.
• Another remaining unsolved mystery involving the Photographer .. Under Fire: how did Francisca Cook, daughter of George S. Cook (Fannie, in the Journal), reach Newark, New Jersey during the war? Such a trip would have necessitated travel through more than one battle zone. George LaGrange Cook, brother to Fannie, made the trip north immediately after the war in order to re-establish family ties and see his sister. Obviously her father would have wanted Fannie out of harm’s way before Sherman’s troop arrived in South Carolina. How this was accomplished is a major mystery.
• What happened to George S. Cook’s photographic work after the Civil War began, after he left Charleston? What was his major work in Columbia? Though his one-time associate, Mathew Brady, is famous for pictures made during that time period, there seem to be no existing Cook photographs. What happened to George S. Cook, the Photographer, during the Civil War? What was he doing? The most famous of his photographs was an unusual picture taken at the ruins of Fort Sumter, said to be the first photograph taken of a bomb while it was exploding mid-air. The only evidence of the famous photograph, which I could find as a reliable resource to use in my book, exists only as a reproduction of a painting. In addition, I was unable to locate any record or account books for any of the war year.
• why did Sherman change his mind, going to Savannah by the sea and not to Charleston Harbor as people in Charleston expected? Could the reason be that there were rumors that submarines were destroying large vessels near Charleston? Had Sherman sealed off Charleston, would Cool escaped destruction by fire in Columbia?
• While writing about George S. Cook, I discovered that the greatest mystery of the Civil War period for me, still unanswered to my satisfaction, is:

Why was the Civil War, The War Between the States, fought at all?

Photographer Cook

Geo. S. Cook - Who Is He?

Geo. S. Cook - His Studios

Geo. S. Cook Made Civil War Photographs of Submarines?

 History Is Mystery

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