Emmor Cope
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United StatesEmmor Bradley[1] Cope | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 23, 1834 |
| Died | May 28, 1927 (aged 92) |
| Interment | 39°49′13″N 77°13′49″W / 39.820391°N 77.230196°W |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch |  Union Army |
| Service years | June 4, 1861 - June 26, 1865[2] (Sergeant: June 10, 1861; artillery Corporal: April 1862; commissioned April 25, 1864; Capt of Engineers: April 20, 1864)[3] |
| Rank |  Major: February 9, 1865 (Bvt Lt Col: June 26, 1865)[3] |
| Battles | 26 |
| Other work | 1861: machinist, Copesville, PA 1893 July: Topographic Engineer[2] Chief of Engineers, GNPC 1st Superintendent, GNMP 1927: oldest US Civil Service employee[4] |
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",[5] which he researched by horseback as a sergeant[6] after being ordered back to Gettysburg by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade.[7] 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,[8][2] (First Pennsylvania Reserves),[9] temporarily detached to Battery C, 5th U.S. Artillery,[3] and mustered out as a V Corps aide-de-camp of Maj Gen Gouverneur K. Warren.
On July 17, 1893,[10] Cope was appointed the Topographical Engineer of the Gettysburg National Park Commission[11] (established for "ascertaining the extent of... the trolley")[12] and oversaw the 1893-5 battlefield survey[13] with benchmark at the Gettysburg center square.[10]: 7 By 1904,[10]: 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[2] through the remainder of the commemorative era of the Gettysburg National Military Park.
Cope's designs include structures (e.g., the original park "gateway"),[14][2] markers (1908 GNMP bronze tablet/granite monolith),[15] buildings (the 1903 Roller and Storage Building),[16] roads (Cross, Brooke, and De Trobriand avenues),[17] 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[10]: 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,[18] and had a daughter and son: Jean Wible[19] and John B. Cope (1877-1903).[20]
Cope's 1996 biography is If You Seek His Monument- Look Around: E.B. Cope and the Gettysburg National Military Park.[21]
