John Codman Ropes (April 28, 1836October 28, 1899) was an American military historian and lawyer, and the co-founder of the

law firm A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise consumer, clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and Obligation, respon ...

Ropes & Gray Ropes & Gray LLP is an American multinational law firm with 14 U.S., Asia, and Europe offices. The firm has over 1,500 lawyers and professionals worldwide, its clients include corporations, financial institutions, government agencies, universitie ...

Early life

Ropes was born on April 28, 1836, in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, the son of a leading merchant of

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

who was engaged in business in Russia. At the age of fourteen, his family having returned to Massachusetts, he developed an infection of the spine which eventually became a permanent deformity. John-Codman-Ropes-plaque

He entered

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

in 1853 and graduated in 1857. During his time at Harvard, he was an early member of the

Fly Club The Fly Club is a final club at Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was established in 1836 and operated as a chapter of Alpha Delta Phi before becoming a local organization in 1906. History Fly Club was founded in 1836 at Harvard ...

. His interests as a young man were chiefly religious, legal and historical, and these remained with him throughout life, his career as a lawyer being conspicuous and successful. But it was the outbreak of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

in 1861 which fixed his attention principally on military history. He ceaselessly assisted with business and personal help and friendship the officers and men of the 20th Massachusetts regiment, in which his brother, Henry Ropes, was

killed in action Killed in action (KIA) is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their personnel at the hands of enemy or hostile forces at the moment of action. The United States Department of Defense, for example, ...

at Gettysburg, and after the war he devoted himself to the collection and elucidation of all obtainable evidence as to its incidents and events. In 1865, he co-founded the Boston-based

Ropes & Gray with

John Chipman Gray John Chipman Gray (July 14, 1839February 25, 1915) was an American scholar of property law and professor at Harvard Law School. He also founded the law firm Ropes & Gray, with law partner John Codman Ropes. He was half-brother to U.S. Supreme ...

Work

In this work his clear and unprejudiced legal mind enabled him to sift the truth from the innumerable public and private controversies, and the ill-informed allotment of praise and blame by the popular historians and biographers. The focus of his work was the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts, which he founded in 1876. The work of this society was the collection and discussion of evidence relating to the great conflict. Although practically every member of his society except himself had fought through the war, and many, such as Hancock and W. F. Smith, were general officers of great distinction, it was from first to last maintained and guided by Ropes, who presented to it his military library and his collection of prints and medals. He died at his home in Boston on October 28, 1899. His principal work was an unfinished ''Story of the Civil War'', to which he devoted most of his later years; this covers the years 1861–62. ''The Army under Pope'' is a detailed narration of the Virginia campaign of August–September 1862, which played a great part in reversing contemporary judgment on the events of those operations, notably as regards the unjustly-condemned General Fitz John Porter. Outside America, Ropes is known chiefly as the author of ''The Campaign of Waterloo'', which is one of the standard works on the subject. The greater part of his studies of the Civil War appears in the Military Historical Society's publications. Papers on the

Waterloo campaign The Waterloo campaign, also known as the Belgian campaign (15 June – 8 July 1815) was fought between the French Army of the North (France), Army of the North and two War of the Seventh Coalition, Seventh Coalition armies, an Anglo-allied arm ...

appeared in the ''Atlantic Monthly'' of June 1881, and in ''Scribner's Magazine'' of March and April 1888. Among his miscellaneous works is a paper on "The Likenesses of Julius Caesar" in ''Scribner's Magazine'' (February 1887).

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ropes, John Codman 1836 births 1899 deaths Lawyers from Boston Harvard University alumni 19th-century American historians People of Massachusetts in the American Civil War Historians of the American Civil War American military historians American male non-fiction writers 19th-century American male writers People associated with Ropes & Gray 19th-century American lawyers American people of Russian descent Law firm founders

Early life

Work

See also

References