Upson-Richmond-Columbia County GaArchives Biographies.....Cobb, James Edward October 5, 1835 - 
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Carolyn Golowka http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00012.html#0002972 March 26, 2007, 7:09 pm

Author: “Memorial Record of Alabama,” Volume 2, published by Brant & Fuller in Madison, WI (1893), pages 444-446

James Edward Cobb was born in Thomaston, Ga., October 5, 1835, and was educated 
at the schools there until he reached the age of nineteen.  He then entered the 
junior class of Emory college at Oxford, Ga., and was graduated in the summer 
of 1856.  He then taught school at Ford Valley, Ga., at a large female school, 
studying law at the same time.  He returned to Thomaston, Ga., and went to 
reading law with Hon. Thomas W. Goode, and was admitted to the bar at Zebulon, 
Ga., in November, 1857.  He left soon after for Texas, locating first at 
Quitman, Tex., and there began to teach school being without means, and after 
four months’ teaching opened a law office.  A year later he moved to 
Henderson., Tes., and opened a law office and practiced law until 1860, when 
the town was burned.  Mr. Cobb lost by this fire his library and his clothing.  
His loss was a great blow to his advancement.  He then went to Galveston, Tex., 
but not finding an opening there went to Liberty, Tex., where he engaged in 
teaching.  While out looking for a place in which to locate, he walked 200 
miles from Henderson to Beaumont.  He taught school at Liberty until Texas 
seceded, when he joined a company, which afterward became company F, of the 
Fifth Texas volunteers, of the army of northern Virginia.  Mr. Cobb joined as a 
private, but on the organization of the company was made second lieutenant, and 
served as such until early in 1862, when he was made first lieutenant, and 
served as such up to the battle of Gettysburg.  In that fight he was captured, 
and was taken to Fort McHenry near Baltimore, thence to Fort Delaware, and a 
month later to Johnson’s Island, where he remained until February, 1863.  HE 
was then taken to Point Lookout to be exchanged, but was not exchanged, and a 
month or two later with 600 others, was taken down to Charleston Harbor to be 
placed before the Federal batteries.  He was not so exposed, retaliation being 
threatened.  Six weeks later, he was taken to Fort Pulaski, and t hence back to 
Fort Delaware, and was not released from t here until Gen. Lee surrendered.  
Mr. Cobb was in the following battles:  Gaines Farm and Malvern Hill.  When 
McClellan was being pressed back in the swamps of the Chickahominy, Mr. Cobb 
took chills and argue, and was furloughed, returning in time to join his 
command at Sharpsburg on the battle field; then he was next in the battle of 
Fredericksburg February 11, and 12, then on with Gen. Lee to Pennsylvania, then 
to Gettysburg, where he was captured, at Round Top on the second day of the 
fight.  After the war, he returned to Thomaston, Ga., and after resting a 
little while he went to his present home, Tuskegee, Ala., where he opened a law 
office, going into partnership with Gen. George W. Ginn in the practice of 
law.  This partnership continued from December, 1865, to October, 1867, when he 
dissolved the partnership and opened an office alone.  After practicing alone 
sometime, he formed a partnership with Hon. Robert F. Ligon, afterward 
lieutenant-governor of Alabama, and the partnership continued until November, 
1874, when his partner was elected lieutenant-governor and Mr. Cobb himself was 
elected judge of the ninth judicial circuit, comprising at the time Macon, 
Tallapoosa, Chambers, Lee and Russell counties.  He served six years (one term) 
and shortly before the general election of 1880, his circuit was made the fifth 
circuit composed of Macon, Tallapoosa and Chambers of the old circuit, to which 
was added Elmore, Autauga, Chilton, Bibb, Coosa and Randolph, and he was 
elected judge of the new circuit.  He served six years.  In the summer of 1886, 
he was elected for the third time, without opposition, receiving all the votes 
cast by both parties.  Before qualifying as judge, he was, in September, 1886, 
nominated for congress by the democrats to represent the fifth congressional 
district.  HE at once resigned the office of judge, and made the race, was 
elected and served in the fiftieth congress.  He was re-elected to the fifty-
first, to the fifty-second and the fifty-third congresses.  His record in 
congress has been a brilliant and useful one.  Judge Cobb was married October 
24, 1867, to Miss Caroline E. Hunter, daughter of James W. Hunter, of Tuskegee, 
Ala., and to them were born seven children, of whom six now survive.  Judge 
Cobb’s father, William A. Cobb, was born in Columbia county, Ga., in 1798, and 
his mother was Jane MacMurphy, a native of Augusta, Ga.  William A. Cobb served 
in the Indian war of 1836 in Florida.  He was for thirty years elected to the 
office of ordinary of Upson county, Ga., where he had moved soon after his 
marriage, about 1824.  He finally settled in Thomaston, Ga., and engaged in 
business there.  He held the office of ordinary at his death in 1877.

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