Emmor Cope
Emmor Cope (1834-1927) was an American Civil War officer of the Union Army noted for the "Map of the Battlefield of Gettysburg from the original survey made August to October, 1863", which he researched by horseback as a sergeant after being ordered back to Gettysburg by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade. Cope is also noted for commemorative era battlefield administration and designs, including the layout of the 1913 Gettysburg reunion. Cope had enlisted as a Private of Company A, (First Pennsylvania Reserves), temporarily detached to Battery C, 5th U.S. Artillery, and mustered out as a V Corps aide-de-camp of Maj Gen Gouverneur K. Warren.
Emmor Bradley Cope | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 23, 1834 East Bradford Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, US |
| Died | May 28, 1927 (aged 92) Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, US |
| Interment | 39.820391°N 77.230196°W |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Service/ | Union Army |
| Years of service | June 4, 1861 - June 26, 1865 (Sergeant: June 10, 1861; artillery Corporal: April 1862; commissioned April 25, 1864; Capt of Engineers: April 20, 1864) |
| Rank | Major: February 9, 1865 (Bvt Lt Col: June 26, 1865) |
| Battles | 26 |
| Other work | 1861: machinist, Copesville, PA 1893 July: Topographic Engineer Chief of Engineers, GNPC 1st Superintendent, GNMP 1927: oldest US Civil Service employee |
On July 17, 1893, Cope was appointed the Topographical Engineer of the Gettysburg National Park Commission (established for "ascertaining the extent of... the trolley") and oversaw the 1893-5 battlefield survey with benchmark at the Gettysburg center square.: 7 By 1904,: 103 Cope was the first park superintendent, and, after the commission became defunct in March 1922 when the last commissioner died, became the battlefield head through the remainder of the commemorative era of the Gettysburg National Military Park.
Cope's designs include structures (e.g., the original park "gateway"), markers (1908 GNMP bronze tablet/granite monolith), buildings (the 1903 Roller and Storage Building), roads (Cross, Brooke, and De Trobriand avenues), and the observation tower at Gettysburg and Valley Forge. He oversaw the development of post-war maps drawn by GNPC cartographer Schuyler A. Hammond, as well as a 14 ft (4.3 m) wooden relief map of the battlefield by J. C. Wierman for the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition: 98 (on display at the Gettysburg Museum and Visitor Center).
Emmor Cope is buried with his wife along the outside of the Gettysburg National Cemetery fence near the New York State Memorial, and had a daughter and son: Jean Wible and John B. Cope (1877-1903).
Cope's 1996 biography is If You Seek His Monument- Look Around: E.B. Cope and the Gettysburg National Military Park.