The Missouri in the Civil War Message Board

Re: Alvin Cobb, Hook-handed Guerrilla

Unsourced entry #1 but matches primary docs previously posted pretty well...

Capt."One Armed" Alvin Cobb

A little known Missouri Guerrilla
Montgomery County, Missouri The genealogical information is the results of my own research. Some information is documented and some is not. As with any information on line, you should verify it yourself before accepting it as fact.

Capt."One Armed" Alvin Cobb, Missouri Guerrilla and Confederate Soldier
Alvin Cobb was a pre-war secessionist in Montgomery County Missouri, farming in the Loutre Valley. He was called "one arm Alvin", because he had one arm, the other being lost in a pre-war hunting accident. He had a hook attached to his bad arm. Alvin began the war as the Captain of a company of Missouri State Guard Cavalry, under Dorsey's Command, fighting in conventional battles at Mount Zion, Moores Mill, and probably at the First Battle of Danville in 1861. Cobb's unit also served with Poindexter and Porter's Campaigns in Northern Missouri, fighting a number of bloody battles.
He reportedly rode into battle holding his reins with his hook, and a revolver in his hand. He carried three pistols and a short rifle. Alvin was a mountaineer, forty five years old, six feet tall, well formed, and weighing about one hundred eighty pounds. His hair hung down to his shoulders, and his face was covered with beard reaching to the waist. His eyes were grey and piercing. He presented an awesome sight to his foes on the battlefield.
Cobbs first action as a Guerrilla was probably the ambush of Major Sharp and Lt. Yager in Martinsburg, Missouri in July of 1861 and his excecution of the two prisoners. The Union forces in Montgomery and Callaway Counties went all out to get him. Patrols were sent to all parts of both counties and the result was the confiscation of property from anyone suspected of Southern ties.
After the Excecution of Sharp and Yager, according to the report of Colonel Fulkerson, his command followed a blood trail from Audrain County to Cobb's Farm in Cobbtown in the southern part of Montgomery County. This seems unlikely since Cobbs unit was not engaged by Sharp and Yager and there are no reports of Union troops engaging Confederate Cavalry during the time period. More likely information was given by Union sympathizers.Colonel Fulkerson contacted Mrs. Cobb at the Cobb farm and under questioning Mrs. Cobb confirmed that Alvin had returned home and admitted to killing Sharp and Yager and had even shown her documents taken from Sharps body, probably his authorization to raise a Union Regiment. In appreciation for Mrs. Cobbs confirmation of his suspicions, Colonel Fulkerson ordered the Cobb house and outbuildings burned, the grain, foodstuffs and live stock confiscated, along with wagons in which to haul the plunder.
By this time Alvin had gone to brush. He was making quite a name for himself as a Bushwhacker, excecuting unionist citizens, ambushing union patrols and harrassing the rail lines. In 1861 and 1862, Alvin Cobb cut a bloody swath through Central Missouri, especially the counties of Boone, Callaway and Howard. General Sterling Price ordered a harrasment campaign against the rail lines in Missouri. As a part of this Cobb and a cavalry force under Capt. Bill Meyers attacked Wellsville, Missouri, After setting fire to the depot and several rail cars, the raiders broke into the store of Mr. Kempinski where they tapped a barrel of whiskey and proceeded to clean out the store, They confiscated all of Kempinski's wagons and horses to move their recently aquired loot.
When it began to get too hot for him in Missouri, Alvin went to Indian Territory in 1864 and aligned himself and his small command with Stand Watie’s Cherokee Confederates. His wife joined him there briefly, but apparently she found the Territory not to her liking and rode back to Montgomery County on an Indian pony. Upon reaching home she filed for a divorce.
The Federal Army, under the diresrion of Secretary of War Stanton, kept looking for Alvin. Throughout 1866, they were trying to find him in Arkansas, Indian Territory, Texas and New Orleans. They came close in the Chocktaw Nation but he managed to slip away. They never caught him.
The Search For Alvin Cobb (pdf file)
He was in California living with three nephews in 1870 and was single. Then, in the 1870's, he went back back to Indian Territory.
Alvin married Frances (Carico) McCart, widow of Albert McCart in 1878 in Indian Territory. She had a number of McCart children, all born in Texas, and Alvin raised them. They went to Laramie, Wyoming before 1880, then to Oregon by 1882.Several of his Cobb relatives from Montgomery County lived there. Alvin and Frances divorced in Oregon, then later remarried there.
They went to Shasta Co., California and were there in 1900 together. He was 82 and she was 58. Her son, Charles M. McCart was with them.
She died 18 Feb 1914 in San Jose, Santa Clara, California She was listed as a widow on the 1910 census, so Alvin probably died in California between 1900 and 1910.

The Family

Generation 1
Samuel COBB b: 1761 in Sussex County, Delaware
Magdalene PEVELER b: 1775 Virginia

Generation 2
Samuel Cobb JR. b: 1792 in Mason County, Kentucky
Died 30 AUG 1881 in Montgomery County, Missouri

Marriage 1 Sarah SAYLOR b: about 1791 in Harrison Co. VA (W.V.)
Died: 1837 in Montgomery County, Missouri
Married: in Fleming County, Kentucky 27 OCT 1811.

Children
1. Alvin S. COBB b: June 1818
2. Shelton John COBB b: 1819
3. Allen A. COBB TWIN b: 9-27-1824
4. Alfred COBB TWIN b: 9-27-1824
5. John COBB b: 1826
6. Jonathan COBB
7. Delila COBB
8. Cynthia COBB
9. Besty COBB
10. Ann COBB
11. Asa COBB
12. Isaac COBB b: 1836

Marriage 2 Senora TAYLOR b: 1793
Married in Montgomery Co., missouri

Children
1. Octavia A. COBB b: 9-18-1838
2. Magdalean COBB b: 1840
3. Virginia COBB b: 1844
4. Prentiss COBB b: 5-27-1862

Generation 3
Alvin COBB was born June 1818 in Kentucky

Marriage 1 Lucy LOGAN b: 1812
Children
1. Milton COBB b: 1843

Marriage 2 ca. 1878 Indian Territory
Frances (Carrico) McCart born 17 Feb 1842 Illinois, widow of Albert McCart (of Hunt Co., Texas).
Alvin raised her McCart children (there were many).
She died 18 Feb 1914 in San Jose, Santa Clara, California

Alvin's and Frances' known Children:

Martha COBB b. ca. 1879 INDIAN TERRITORY
Alvin Lafayette COBB b. 27 July 1882, in Willow, Oregon

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Alvin Cobb, Hook-handed Guerrilla
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Re: Alvin Cobb, Hook-handed Guerrilla