Thomas R. R. Cobb to Howell. Cobb.
Savannah [Ga.], Tuesday Mar. 19, 1861.
Dear Brother, Your letter together with three from my wife and some forty others have been lying in the P. O. here for several days while I was in blissful ignorance.
I am perfectly willing to labor for the Confederate States. I will gratuitously give my time and talent to revising the laws; but I cannot abandon my family now to spend two months more in Montgomery. If this is necessary I decline. If I can work at home and report to my associates at M[ontgomery] when I return there in May then I will accept. Let me know at once, as I will correspond with them and arrange parts.
Understand that I appreciate your willingness to appoint me but I have no anxiety or wish for the place. Nothing but an honest desire to do something for the country induces me to consider the proposition.
From Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911.
Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb (April 10, 1823 – December 13, 1862) was an American slave owner, lawyer, author, politician, and Confederate States Army officer, killed in the Battle of Fredericksburg during the American Civil War. He is the brother of noted Confederate statesman Howell Cobb
Howell Cobb was an American political figure. A southern Democrat, Cobb was a five-term member of the United States House of Representatives and Speaker of the House from 1849 to 1851. He also served as the 40th Governor of Georgia and as a Secretary of the Treasury under President James Buchanan. Cobb is, however, probably best known as one of the founders of the Confederacy, having served as the President of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States.