421 Cooper was the home of Samuel C. Harbert, who oversaw the supplies of the 4th New Jersey Infantry Regiment as quartermaster.
One of Samuel’s daughters, sixteen-year-old Mary Virginia, was admired by Thomas James Howell, a seventeen-year-old soldier who had grown up only a few blocks away at 308 Market Street. In 1862, Howell was appointed second lieutenant of the 3rd New Jersey Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Howell came from a wealthy family, and he received a private education and was studying law at the outbreak of the war. Historians estimate that there were fewer than twenty-five officers under the age of eighteen on either side during the war.
Howell sent many letters to his family from the frontlines. Many of these letters have been preserved, and are now contained in the book, This Will Make a Man of Me. In the letters to his brother and sister, Howell often asked about Mary, indicating his feelings for her. In one letter, he even asked his siblings to see if she might be willing to send him a picture of herself.
It is unknown if Mary reciprocated Howell’s feelings, but his affection demonstrates the human nature of those who served. Everyone who fought had dreams and people they loved, and service put their lives on pause. Many, like Howell, got caught up in the war fervor, looking to prove themselves as men and to serve their country. Unfortunately, many did not make it home, and Thomas was also one of those who met this fate. Thomas James Howell was killed at the Battle of Gaines Mill on June 27, 1862, by a cannonball. Henry Genet Taylor, the famous surgeon at 305 Cooper Street, began one of his famous letters depicting the Peninsular Campaign by mentioning Howell’s death. Taylor expressed how his death moved “the affections of all who know his worth.” While Howell never returned home, his story and affection for Mary live on through his letters.
Mary Virginia Howell lived on for another forty-three years, seemingly never marrying. At the time of her death on September 1, 1905, she lived at 4806 Fairmount Avenue, Philadelphia. She was buried with her mother at Woodlands Cemetery.
