author
Robert Cowdin
1805–1874
Best known for his Civil War memoir, he wrote from firsthand experience as a Massachusetts colonel, blending soldierly detail with a strong sense of public duty. His life also stretched beyond the page, from business and local politics to military service in one of the war’s earliest campaigns.
1 Audiobook
Gen. Cowdin and the First Massachusetts Regiment of Volunteers
by Robert Cowdin
About the author
Born in Jamaica, Vermont, in 1805, he moved to Boston as a young man and built a career in the lumber trade. Over time he also became active in civic life, serving in local politics in Massachusetts.
During the American Civil War, he led the 1st Massachusetts Infantry as its colonel and took part in some of the conflict’s early major actions. That experience shaped the work he is most associated with as an author, Gen. Cowdin and the First Massachusetts Regiment of Volunteers, a firsthand account tied closely to his service.
He died in 1874. For listeners interested in memoirs of the Civil War, his writing offers the perspective of a man who was not only recording events after the fact, but had stood inside them.