Gen. Cowdin and the First Massachusetts Regiment of Volunteers

This publication follows the military service of Colonel Robert Cowdin, a field officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War and a local politician in Massachusetts. Cowdin was colonel of the 1st Massachusetts Infantry and served in several major battles early on in the war. He was appointed brigadier general of volunteers on September 26, 1862 and he then commanded a brigade in the defenses of Washington until March 1863. He did not however become a full brigadier general because his appointment expired by law March 4, 1862 when the U.S. Senate adjourned without confirming it. The publication follows his attempt to lobby for the appointment via various letters, including solicitations made on his behalf to the then President Abraham Lincoln.