Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 28.djvu/286

 280 Southern Historical Society Papers.

THOMAS R. R. COBB.

Member of the Secession Convention of Georgia, of the

Provisional Congress, and a Brigadier-General of

the Confederate States Army.

EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS TO HIS WIFE, FEBRUARY 3, 1861-DECEMBER 10, 1862.

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.

The following appeared in the columns of the Athens, Georgia, Banner, during the months of February, March and April, 1897.

They were sent to us a little later by Mr. A. L. Hull, of Athens, Ga., who married a daughter of General Cobb.

Whilst the expressions of General Cobb are his own and may in no wise be endorsed by the editor, yet, from a man admittedly so able and fearless, and so thoroughly earnest and devoted, they have value in aiding in a clear analyses of the characters of the men of the period, and of their agency in determining its momentous events, as well as in definitely fixing these last.

General Cobb, a brother of the statesman, Howell Cobb, was born in Jefferson county, Ga., in 1823, and graduated from the Uni- versity of that State in 1841.

Having been admitted to the bar, he was the Reporter of the Supreme Court of Georgia from 1849 to 1857. In 1851 he published a new " Digest of the Laws of Georgia," and in 1858, an "Inquiry into the Laws of Negro Slavery," a scholarly and extensive research.

He was a Trustee of the University of Georgia; was active in the cause of education in the State, and had a high reputation and large practice as a lawyer. An able and an eloquent member of the Provis- ional Congress of the Confederate States, he served in this body as Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs.

He was killed at the battle of Fredericksburg, Va., on December 13, 1862. EDITOR.

The election of Mr. Lincoln so aroused Mr. Cobb to the dangers which threatened the South, that he urged by pen and voice, a sep- aration from the North as the only course of safety. Chosen a