Thomas Howell Cobb (7 September 1815-9 October 1868) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-GA AL) from 4 March 1843 to 3 March 1845 (succeeding James Archibald Meriwether) and from GA-6 from 4 March 1845 to 3 March 1851 (preceding Junius Hillyer) and from 4 March 1855 to 3 March 1857 (succeeding Hillyer and preceding James Jackson), Governor of Georgia from 5 November 1851 to 9 November 1853 (succeeding George W. Towns and preceding Herschel Vespasian Johnson), and US Secretary of the Treasury from 7 March 1857 to 8 December 1860 (succeeding James Guthrie and preceding Philip Thomas). Cobb would also distinguish himself as a general of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.
Biography[]
Thomas Howell Cobb was born in Jefferson County, Georgia on 7 September 1815, the brother of Thomas R.R. Cobb. Cobb was admitted to the bar in 1836, and he was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1845 as a Democrat. Cobb served as Speaker of the House from 1849 to 1851, when he was elected Governor of Georgia. Cobb was in favor of the expansion of slavery into the Mexican Cession states, but he agreed to the Compromise of 1850 and became a pro-union Democrat. In 1857, he was nominated as Secretary of the Treasury by Presdent James Buchanan, and he was groomed as Buchanan's successor at one point. In 1860, he resigned from the government, and he left the pro-union camp to become a leader of the secessionist movement. On 4 February 1861, with Cobb as president, the convention of the seceded states in the American South drafted a constitution for the new Confederate States of America, and Cobb became a colonel.
American Civil War[]
Cobb in military uniform
On 13 February 1862, Cobb was promoted to Brigadier-General in the new Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, and he led prisoner exchange negotiations with the Union during the early months of 1862. Cobb saw combat as a brigade commander during the Peninsula Campaign, the Seven Days Battles, and as commander of the Confederates at the Battle of South Mountain in the autumn of 1862. In October 1862, he was sent to the District of Middle Florida, and he was given command of the Confederate forces in Florida and Georgia on 9 September 1863 with the rank of Major-General. On 20 April 1865, he surrendered to the Union at Macon, Georgia, and he resumed his career as a lawyer. He died of a heart attack while vacationing in New York City on 9 October 1868.