_Ambrose COBB _______+
                                            | (1729 - 1797)       
                       _John S COBB ________|
                      | (1759 - 1841)       |
                      |                     |_Sarah HOWELL _______
                      |                       (1734 - 1815)       
 _Rowland COBB _______|
| (1796 - 1867) m 1817|
|                     |                      _Christopher SMITH __
|                     |                     | (1730 - 1804)       
|                     |_Frances SMITH ______|
|                       (1770 - 1851)       |
|                                           |_Mary MAULDIN _______
|                                             (1735 - ....)       
|
|--Kelsey Miller COBB 
|  (1835 - 1862)
|                                            _____________________
|                                           |                     
|                      _Fnu EDWARDS ________|
|                     |  m 1803             |
|                     |                     |_____________________
|                     |                                           
|_Mary Ann EDWARDS ___|
  (1803 - 1889) m 1817|
                      |                      _John MILLER ________
                      |                     | (.... - 1807) m 1767
                      |_Elizabeth MILLER ___|
                        (1780 - 1861) m 1803|
                                            |_Elizabeth SAY ______
                                              (.... - 1807) m 1767

[N1672] This researcher will be the first to confess that experience has jaded me against ever accepting oral family legend without a grain of salt. In the case of Kelsey M. Cobb, bona fide documentation will not make any sense whatsoever unless you do give at least some credence to undocumentable tradition and combine that with what you can prove.

It is believed that when Kelsey's parents moved to Texas in 1856 from Georgia, the party was initially composed of two families; that of Rowland Cobb, and that of George W. Eaton who had married Rowland's wife's sister Lavenia in 1854. It will be recalled that Lavenia's first husband was Rowland's brother, Andrew Ambrose Cobb who had died in 1844.

It is known that the combined party did not complete the move to Texas intact. The Eaton family dropped out in Fayette County, Alabama, along with one of Rowland's sons John L. Cobb. Both of these families can be found on the 1860 census for Fayette County. Another of Rowland's sons Warren dropped out in Sevier County, Arkansas, and died there in 1857. Kelsey did of course complete the move to Texas, and by 1860, he was married and had two small children.

According to oral family tradition, when the War Between the States began, Rowland and his wife became concerned for their relatives back in Alabama. Further according to legend, Rowland and sons Kelsey and Rufus returned to Fayette County.

Apparently, Kelsey had also expressed his intention to offer his military service to the Confederacy, and his wife had the desire to return to her family in Georgia while he was away.

It cannot be proven that the elder Rowland Cobb returned to Alabama, but there is documentation to show that Kelsey and brother Rufus did. Rufus died in Fayette County, Alabama in 1864, and his grave has been located there. It can also be shown that Kelsey did in fact return and placed his wife and children with her family in Georgia. Elvira and the children are found on the 1870 census for Whitfield County, Georgia.

Apparently after leaving his wife in Georgia, Kelsey returned to Fayette County, where he filed his Will and then enlisted in Company C, 26th Alabama Infantry Regiment in March 1862. He was immediately ordered to Virginia. On June 28, 1862, Kelsey was killed in action, probably in the series of engagements known as The Seven Days Battle, fought near Richmond, the last week of June 1862, immediately after Robert E. Lee had assumed command of The Army of Northern Virginia. As late as 1933, a letter was still in family possession, sent by one of Kelsey's comrades to his family advising them of the circumstances of his death and burial. A partial transcription of that letter, details that Kelsey was shot through the Heart and died immediately. Then later that night his comrades returned and buried him where he fell after wrapping him in his own blanket.

An exhaustive search has failed to produce an official military service record for Kelsey. It is presumed that the reason for this is that he lived for such a short time after enlisting. However, a single index card in the Alabama Department of Archives and History states that his widow filed a claim for his unpaid military wages due him at the time of his death. The claim was initiated from Calhoun County, Georgia. The card does specify the unit in which Kelsey served and the date of his death. And the claim being made by his widow in Georgia, does verify that she had returned to her family there.

Kelsey Miller Cobb was probably the only legal resident of Fannin County, Texas to originally enlist in a non-Texas unit during the war, and to be killed in action in Virginia. Of all the units formed in Fannin County, all were either assigned to the Army of Tennessee, or to the Trans-Mississippi Department. None were ever assigned to the Army of Northern Virginia. It is quite possible that Kelsey never saw his youngest child Mary, born in 1862.

I will also point out that in the same Company C, 26th Alabama Infantry Regiment, was one Wilson H. Cobb, a cousin of Kelsey. He was the son of Andrew and Lavenia Edwards Cobb Eaton, and one of the Alabama relatives Rowland Cobb and wife Mary Edwards were concerned about to begin with. Wilson had married just before the war started. He survived the conflict, fathered fifteen children, and eventually moved to Fannin County, himself. It was a small world then, too.