Thomas outlines how a Georgian promoted the Confederate cause

MARCH 13, 2012 — On the heels of St. Patrick’s Day, Civil War historian Sam Thomas of Athens, Ga., told members about Thomas Read Rootes Cobb, a leading Georgian who helped codify Georgia law before joining the Confederate cause as an officer.

Thomas told the story of the colorful background of the Cobb family, including the differences between the abstemious Tom Cobb and his older brother Howell, a gregarious politician who served as speaker of the U.S. House (1849-51), governor of Georgia (1851-53) and U.s. Secretary of Treasury (1857-60).

Both brothers were founders of the Confederacy, with Tom Cobb, an intellectual, often quietly advising his more political brother. Tom Cobb, a founder of the University of Georgia’s law school, also wrote a Georgia constitution that included a Bill of Rights, Thomas said, and pushed for Georgia to leave the union before South Carolina, but was unsuccessful. However, his advocacy for session rubbed off on leaders in other states, Thomas said, and was influential in leading S.C. to secede in December 1860.

An ardent secessionist, Tom Cobb served in the Confederate Congress and chaired the committee that drafted the Confederate constitution. “He was one person who could not keep his mouth shut,” said Thomas, who today is curator of the T.R.R. Cobb house and museum in Athens. “He believed he had to have his thumb in everything.”

During the Civil War, Howell Cobb led a brigade of mostly Irish soldiers from Georgia with Tom Cobb as an officer. When his brother was promoted to major general, Tom Cobb was promoted to brigadier general to lead the brigade. He also became an adviser to Gen. Robert E. Lee, Thomas said. During the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, Cobb’s Brigade successfully defended a strategic stone wall by repelling 13 Union frontal charges through a “shock and awe” strategy, Thomas said, that allowed them to provide an almost continuous fire on Union troops. During the battle, Tom Cobb died.

You can learn more about Cobb at the T.R.R. Cobb House Web site: http://www.trrcobhouse.org.

Submitted by Andy Brack, Keyway Committee