Surgeon Andrew Benedict Cooke

I represent Andrew Benedict Cooke. I was the Surgeon aboard the U.S. Sloop of War HORNET. I was born March 17, 1793 in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Catherine Millidollar and John Cooke, natives of Germany. I was commissioned in 1818 and reported on board the HORNET for the first time on March 7, 1820 in New York. Not only did the HORNET participate in the changing of the flag ceremony on July 17, 1821, gaily decked out in Pensacola Bay for the festivities, we brought James G. Forbes from Havana to Pensacola with the official orders from the Captain General of Cuba authorizing the transfer. We were also one of the vessels that evacuated Spanish officers and citizens who were leaving Pensacola when it became American.