Cobb, Thomas Reade Rootes

Cobb, Thomas Reade Rootes, 1823–62, American lawyer, b. Jefferson co., Ga.; brother of Howell Cobb. Admitted to the bar in 1842, he edited 20 volumes of the Georgia supreme court reports (1849–57), prepared A Digest of the Statute Laws of the State of Georgia (1851), and compiled (1858–61) a new state criminal code. Cobb was a militant secessionist. In the Georgia secession convention he was chairman of the committee that wrote a new state constitution (1861) and helped write the Confederate Constitution. In the Civil War he organized and led Cobb's Legion. Promoted to brigadier general in Nov., 1862, he was killed at Fredericksburg the following month.