Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 4.djvu/131

 for the First Battery of Light Artillery. Soon after he received the appointment of major of the Sixth Regiment of Infantry and was in the Battle of Shiloh. In May he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and was in command of the regiment. In March, 1863, he was commissioned colonel and in August was promoted to Brigadier-General. In 1864 he was in Sherman's great campaign through the Gulf States and greatly distinguished himself by an heroic defense of Allatoona against an assault by a greatly superior force. He served with distinction to the close of the war and was brevetted Major-General of volunteers in April, 1866. In 1867 he was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue in Chicago. He was one of the incorporates of the Texas Pacific Railroad Company. In 1871 he removed to Boston where in 1886 he was appointed postmaster. He died in that city on the 27th of April, 1893. AYLETT R. COTTON was born in Austintown, Ohio, November 29, 1826. He received a liberal education and first engaged in school teaching. In 1844 he came with his father's family to Iowa and located at De Witt in Clinton County, where he began to study law. After making a journey to California, he began the practice of his profession at De Witt in 1851. He was elected county judge serving two years and then became Prosecuting Attorney. Removing to Lyons he became mayor of the city in 1855. He was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1856 and took an active part in framing the new Constitution. Mr. Cotton was elected to the House of the Twelfth General Assembly in 1867, was reëlected at the close of his term and chosen Speaker of the House in the session of 1870. He was elected to Congress in the fall of 1870, serving two terms, having been a Republican from the time of the organization of that party. He removed to California. ROBERT G. COUSINS was born in Cedar County, Iowa, in 1859, graduated from Cornell College, Mount Vernon, having finished his course in 1881 and was admitted to the bar the following year. In the fall of 1885 he was elected to the House of the Twenty-first General Assembly and at the session of the Senate held in 1887 to try the impeachment charges preferred against J. L. Brown, Auditor of State, Mr. Cousins was chosen by the House to act as one of the prosecutors. The Senate acquitted the auditor; but it was conceded that the prosecution was ably conducted and Mr. Cousins' argument was an eloquent presentation of the case and brought the young lawyer into prominence. In 1888 he was chosen Prosecuting Attorney and Presidential elector in the Fifth District. In 1892 he was nominated by the Republicans of the Fifth District for Representative in Congress and elected by a plurality of 1,098. He has been repeatedly reëlected, serving in the Fifty-fourth, Fifty-fifth, Fifty-sixth and Fifty-seventh Congresses and has won the reputation of being