Born: October 13, 1821, Savannah, Georgia.
Died: March 22, 1895, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Buried: Nisky Hill Cemetery, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Coppee attended Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, for two years, worked as a civil engineer, and graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1845.
He served in the Mexican-American War as a lieutenant, and was made a brevet captain for gallantry in the Battles of Contreras and Churubusco.
After the war, he was a professor of English at West Point (1850–55), and professor of English literature and history at the University of Pennsylvania (1855–66).