COBB, Howell, (nephew of Howell Cobb [1772–1818]), a Representative from Georgia; born at "Cherry Hill," Jefferson County, Ga., September 7, 1815; moved with his father to Athens, Ga., in childhood; was graduated from Franklin College (then a part of the University of Georgia), at Athens in 1834; studied law; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Athens, Ga., in 1836; solicitor general of the western judicial circuit of Georgia 1837-1841; elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-eighth and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1843-March 3, 1851); chairman, Committee on Mileage (Twenty-eighth Congress); Speaker of the House of Representatives (Thirty-first Congress); Governor of Georgia 1851-1853; elected to the Thirty-fourth Congress (March 4, 1855-March 3, 1857); Secretary of the Treasury in the Cabinet of President Buchanan and served from March 6, 1857, to December 10, 1860, when he resigned; chairman of the convention of delegates from the seceded States which assembled in Montgomery, Ala., on February 24, 1861, to form a Confederate Government; appointed a brigadier general in the Confederate Army February 13, 1862, and promoted to major general September 9, 1863; surrendered at Macon, Ga., April 20, 1865; died in New York City October 9, 1868; interment in Oconee Cemetery, Athens, Clarke County, Ga.
View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
[ Top ]Brooks, Robert Preston. Howell Cobb and the crisis of 1850. [Athens, Ga.: N.p., 1918].
Cobb, Howell. Communication from Hon. Howell Cobb. [Enclosing the report of Major John C. Whitner, relative to the preparation of copies of the Journals of the Provisional congress and of the Proceedings of the Convention]. [Richmond: Confederate States of America, 1865].
------. Great speech of General Howell Cobb, delivered in Atlanta, Ga., July 23, 1868. Augusta, Ga.: The "Chronicle and sentinel," [1868?]
------. Necessity for party organization. [Washington: Printed at the Congressional globe office, 1848].
------. Remarks of Mr. Cobb, of Georgia, delivered in the House of representatives, December 21, 1855. [Washington: Printed at the Congressional globe office, 1855].
------. Speech of Hon. Howell Cobb, of Georgia, delivered in Concord, N.H., at a mass meeting of the Democratic Party of Merrimac County. [Concord?: N.p., 1855?]
------. Speech of Mr. Cobb, of Georgia, on the Oregon question. Delivered in the House of representatives, January 8, 1846. Washington: Printed at the Union office, 1846.
Farley, M. Foster, ed. "Three Letters of William Henry Trescot to Howell Cobb, 1861." South Carolina Historical Magazine 68 (January 1967): 22-30.
Gannon, Nell W. "Howell Cobb: A Political Biography." Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1933.
Greene, Helen Ione. Politics in Georgia, 1853-54; the ordeal of Howell Cobb. [N.p., 1946].
Hubbell, John T. "Three Georgia Unionists and the Compromise of 1850." Georgia Historical Quarterly 51 (September 1967): 307-23.
Johnson, Zachary T. Political Policies of Howell Cobb. Nashville, Tenn.: George Peabody College for Teachers, 1929.
Montgomery, Horace. Howell Cobb's Confederate Career. Tuscaloosa, Ala.: Confederate Publishing, 1959.
------. "Howell Cobb, Daniel Webster, and Jenny Lind." Georgia Historical Quarterly 45 (March 1961): 37-41.
------. "Two Howell Cobbs: A Case of Mistaken Identity." Journal of Southern History 28 (August 1962): 348-55.
Simpson, John E. Howell Cobb: The Politics of Ambition. Chicago: Adams Press, 1973.
------. "Howell Cobb's Bid For the Presidency in 1860." Georgia Historical Quarterly 55 (Spring 1971): 102-13.
------. "Prelude to Compromise: Howell Cobb and the House Speakership Battle of 1849." Georgia Historical Quarterly 58 (Winter 1974): 389-99.
Toombs, Robert. The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb. Edited by Ulrich Bonnel Phillips. 1913. Reprint, New York: Da Capo Press, 1970.
Weller, John B. Speeches of Messrs. Weller, Orr, Lane, and Cobb, delivered in Phoenix and Depot hall, Concord, N. H., at a mass meeting of the Democratic party of Merrimac County. [Concord?: N.p., 1856?]
Reid, Randy L. "Howell Cobb of Georgia: A Biography." Ph. D. Diss., Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College, 1995.
