author
A. (Alonzo) Cooper
1830–1919
Best known for a vivid Civil War memoir, this Union cavalry officer wrote from firsthand experience about capture, imprisonment, escape, and survival. His account remains a direct, readable window into the harsh reality of Confederate prison camps.
1 Audiobook
In and Out of Rebel Prisons
by A. (Alonzo) Cooper
About the author
After serving as a lieutenant in the 12th New York Cavalry during the American Civil War, he turned his wartime experiences into In and Out of Rebel Prisons, published in Oswego, New York, in 1888. The book follows his capture and imprisonment and was written as a personal record of what Union officers endured.
What makes his writing memorable is its plainspoken, eyewitness quality. Rather than sounding distant or formal, it brings readers close to daily prison life, danger, and the long effort to regain freedom, which is why the memoir has continued to be reprinted and preserved in major digital collections.
Available records identify him as Alonzo Cooper, born in 1830 and died in 1919. Beyond that, biographical details appear limited in the sources readily available online, so his reputation today rests mainly on the power of his surviving memoir.