General Douglas Hancock Cooper was praised by a contemporary as kind and sympathetic by nature, generous to a fault, honest, of noble impulses, and born and bred a gentleman. He was appointed U.S. Agent to the Choctaws in 1853 and to the Chickasaws in 1856, and under his supervision the agencies were consolidated and the office was located at Fort Washita. With the outbreak of the War Between the States, his friend Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, designated him Choctaw-Chickasaw Agent, C.S.A. In June 1861, he was appointed Commander of Choctaw-Chickasaw Mounted Riflemen, C.S.A., and saw action in many hard battles. Recognition of his military ability led to his promotion as Commander of the Indian Territory Military District, C.S.A. In 1865, he was appointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the District of Indian Territory, Trans-Mississippi, C.S.A. Cooper was born in Mississippi on November 1, 1815, died at Fort Washita in the Chickasaw Nation on April 29, 1879, and was buried there in an unmarked and unknown grave.