After being pulled from the Ashley River, Nathan Cook and J. A. Rampey were fed and treated well until the next morning when they were handed over to the officer of the day. Upon seeing the young prisoners, the Union officer asked the sergeant of the guard, “What did you bring them here for? Don’t you think we have enough of such stock and couldn’t you have disposed of them?” So, the guard marched them off to the main camp where they sat around a fire while they cooked breakfast. As soon as the other Union men saw two enemy soldiers in their midst they began to gather round and throw barbs at the two hapless prisoners.
The insults moved quickly from joking to a more serious nature. Nathan took it for a while and then attempted to trade insults with one particular aggressive soldier from Minnesota. Finally, in a fit of rage the soldier ran off and picked up a hatchet and headed back with the intention of killing Nathan. At the last moment, some of the pickets that had pulled them out of the river stepped in front of Nathan with their rifles to protect him. Nathan and Rampy were later transported to Charleston and were taken before Colonel Stewart L. Woodford from New York. He asked them several questions and then ordered the guards to take them to the Charleston city jail and lock them up as prisoners of war.
After the war, Colonel Woodford came close to being the vice president of the United States and eventually wound up as the Foreign Minister to Spain. As for J. A. Rampy, he became a prosperous farmer in Lowndes County, Alabama near Burkeville. As to Nathan he returned to Sallie in Lowndes County, but sadly all three of his children had died of disease in his absence. He and Sallie moved to Pensacola during the Reconstruction period and they settled in a house at the corner of DeVilliers and Gregory Streets. Sallie would give birth in their home to six more children, including young Nathan B. Cook Jr. Around 1890, they moved into a house at 320 East Gadsden Street where they remained for the rest of their lives.
Although Nathan had no experience in education he was appointed "Superintendent of Public Instruction," a position he would hold for 28-years until 1913. Even though Nathan was trained as a pharmacist he was much happier trying to build a more compatible educational system. Nathan would apply for his Confederate pension with the state of Florida in 1906 and was approved for the yearly amount of $120.00.
Four years after his retirement from the school board he passed away at his home on May 15, 1917. He was buried in St. Johns Cemetery where he joined his beloved Sallie who had passed away in 1910. His son Nathan B. Jr. would retire as a railroad conductor after 55 years service with the L&N line.
Nathan Burrell Cook in later years
prior to his death in 1917
Nathan Burrell Cook Jr. (1870-1943)