John Codman Ropes

HISTORY

John Codman Ropes

The Military Historical Society of Massachusetts’ early chronicle is entwined with the life of John Codman Ropes (1836-1899), the son of a Boston merchant, born in St. Petersburg, Russia, who, with 12 former Civil War Federal Officers, launched The Society on February 7, 1876. It went on to become one of the country’s leading military history groups and it’s oldest.

From Russia, where his father founded the House of William Ropes, John and his family returned to Boston where he was educated, graduating from Harvard College and Harvard Law School (he was selected as the first editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review). In 1865 he formed a partnership with John C. Gray and the law firm of Ropes and Gray went on to become one of the largest and best-known international practices in the country.

A physical disability kept him from joining forces leaving Massachusetts (the first state to provide the US Army with militia units) for the Civil War. Instead, he became an authority on the war through an intense and enduring interest in its conduct, writing several books about a conflict that took the life of his brother Henry, at Gettysburg. His studies stimulated formation of The Society to lead “investigations of questions relating to the late Civil War; and in the investigation of such questions, and of all questions, this Society shall aim at nothing save the ascertainment of the truth.”

Ropes also wrote volumes on Napoleon’s military campaigns. His interest in the “Little Corporal” led to the acquisition of a 400-book library, and many priceless artifacts from that era, including Napoleon’s death mask, and the saber wielded by one of, if not his most recognized officers, Marshal Joaquin Murat. After three years the Society counted 72 members, boasting 37 notables as corresponding members including General William T. Sherman, General James Longstreet, Captain Gustavus V. Fox, USN (later Asst. Secretary of the Navy), and an US Navy Commander who, in 1898 gained renown at Manila Bay as Admiral George Dewey. In 1945, the man British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called the Architect of World War II victory, General George C. Marshall, accepted Honorary Membership in The Society.

On February 24,1891, The Society incorporated under Massachusetts law as a nonprofit educational organization (later accredited by the IRS). By then, there were 146 members and its purpose expanded to include the study of "the military history of our own and other countries," and “the maintenance of social meetings for the discussion of the same.”
A militia commander, and Society member, Col. Thomas Edmands, coaxed Ropes into placing his library in a new (1896) Armory. Ropes sent five hundred volumes on the Civil War, his four hundred Napoleon era books, and more. Bolstered by gifts, his library held more than five thousand volumes, a collection of a thousand prints, medals, bronzes, portraits, the death mask, and Murat’s Sabre. In 1969, after the First Corps Armory’s sale, all books and historical treasure went on permanent loan to Boston University’s Mugar Library where they are still used by serious scholars. The sale forced a search for new meeting space and, following many rootless years, The Society now often meets at the Union Club of Boston, founded in 1863.