We just celebrated the 118th anniversary of the death of Jacob Cox on August 4, 1900. An avid sailor, he and his namesake son, J.D. Cox III, were sailing off the coast of Massachusetts in July when he had a heart attack. Cox was never even wounded during his four years in the Civil War, and he had been relatively healthy until that time. He was 72 when he died.
Below are two pictures from the gravesite at Spring Hill Cemetery in Cincinnati. The grave is just a few meters from that of two other famous Civil War personna, Salmon P. Chase and Joseph Hooker. On Cox’s obelisk is the inscription, “Jacob Dolson Cox, 1828-1900; Soldier, Statesman, Scholar, Patriot. ” The motto inscribed under his name was quite fitting: “Integer Vitae”. Many of his family members, including his wife Helen, who died in 1912, are also buried at the site.
GENE SCHMIEL, CIVIL WAR HISTORIAN, AUTHOR, AND LECTURER 