author
Robert Cowdin
1805–1874
Best remembered for his firsthand Civil War writing, this Massachusetts businessman and militia officer turned his experience with the 1st Massachusetts Volunteers into a vivid regimental history. His life also reached into public service, linking commerce, military duty, and local politics in 19th-century New England.
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 in Massachusetts, serving in local politics as well as in the state militia.
When the Civil War began, he took command of the 1st Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry and saw early action in the conflict. He was later given the rank of brigadier general by brevet, and his military service became the foundation for the work he is most remembered for today.
His best-known book, Gen. Cowdin and the First Massachusetts Regiment of Volunteers (1864), draws on his own wartime experience and offers readers a direct account of one of the Union's early volunteer regiments. That mix of personal knowledge and historical detail gives his writing lasting value for listeners interested in Civil War history.