United States Congressman from Alabama

Elected to the Confederate Congress in 1863

Tragically killed in 1864!

(1807-64) He was born in Rhea County, Tenn., moved with his father to Bellefontaine, Alabama, settled on a plantation, and was engaged in growing cotton. He served as a Representative in the Alabama State House, 1845-46, and was a U.S. Congressman 1847-61. He served as chairman on the Committee on Revisal and Unfinished Business, and also served on the Committee on Public Lands. He withdrew from the U.S. Congress in 1861, when Alabama seceded from the Union, and was unsuccessful in his bid to become a Confederate Congressman. Returning to his cotton plantation for the next 2 years, he was elected as a member of the Confederate Congress in 1863, but did not take his seat when the new Congress met because he was expelled by the unanimous vote of his colleagues for suspicion of being disloyal. Mr. Cobb met with a tragic, accidental death on November 11, 1864, when he was shot to death by his own pistol during the construction of a fence on his plantation near Bellefontaine, Alabama. He is buried at the Cobb family estate, near Cobb’s Bridge, in Madison County, Alabama.

Signature with place: 5 x 1, in ink, W.R.W. Cobb, Bellefonte, Ala. Trimmed closely at the top.