Coppinger, John J
soldier, was born in 1835 in Ireland. He joined the papal guards to fight against Victor Emmanuel. He came to America with letters from Archbishop Hughes, and in 1861 was made captain in the fourteenth infantry. At the close of the war he was colonel of the fifteenth New York cavalry.
He made a brilliant record and was brevetted lieutenant-colonel at Trevillians, Va. After the war he was transferred to the twenty-third United States infantry, and was brevetted colonel in battles with the Indians in 1866, 1867 and 1868. He was commissioned major-general in 1898.