Governor Howell Cobb - Georgia

Governor Howell Cobb 

Brother to General Thomas Cobb commander of the Georgia Cobb Legion, Howell was a powerhouse of Georgia and national politics in the 1850s and 1860s. He would hold the office of Georgia Representative, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Georgia's 40th Governor, and Secretary of the Treasury. 

While apposed to secession in the 1850s, but with the election of Lincoln, Howell moved immediately for secession go Georgia. Considered one of the founders of the Southern Confederacy, Howell aided in the writing of the Confederate Constitution. He would hold the position of President of the Confederate States Provisional Congress from 1861-1862. 

From 1862 on he would server in the Confederate Army, initially within the Army of Northern Virginia, then transferring to command the District of Florida and Georgia. On the night of Nov. 22, 1864, on his March to the Sea, Maj. Gen. W.T. Sherman, camped near Cobb's plantation. Upon learning from slaves the ownership of this plantation, he ordered its total destruction which, except for the slaves’ quarters was accomplished that night by the 23rd Missouri Veteran Volunteer Infantry. Cobb would surrender with his department on April 20, 1865.