Representative William Cogswell

William Cogswell (August 23, 1838 – May 22, 1895) was a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts, a prominent Republican officeholder, and a Union Army officer who rose to the brevet rank of brigadier general during the American Civil War. He was born in Bradford, Massachusetts, to Dr. George Cogswell and Abigail (Parker) Cogswell. His father, a well‑respected surgeon, was among the founders of the Massachusetts Republican Party, while his grandfather, also named William Cogswell, had served as a surgeon’s mate in the Revolutionary War, later practicing medicine in Atkinson, New Hampshire, and donating land for the Atkinson Academy. Cogswell’s mother died when he was about seven years old, an early loss that marked his childhood but did not impede his pursuit of education and public life.

Cogswell’s education reflected both his family’s standing and his own ambition. He attended Atkinson Academy in Atkinson, New Hampshire; Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, New Hampshire; and Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, before entering Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, in 1855. He left Dartmouth after a short period and, from 1856 to 1857, undertook a voyage around the world, spending roughly two years as a sailor. Upon his return, he redirected his efforts toward the law, enrolling at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. On September 8, 1860, he was admitted to the bar in Essex County, Massachusetts, and soon thereafter worked in the Salem office of attorney William D. Northend. By April 1861 he had opened his own law office in Salem, Massachusetts, establishing the professional base from which he would depart for wartime service.

Cogswell’s military career began on the eve of the Civil War. He had been a private in the Second Corps of Cadets, a militia organization of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, serving during the winter of 1860–1861. When news reached Salem on April 19, 1861, that the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment had been attacked in Baltimore while en route to defend Washington, D.C., Cogswell turned his law office into a recruiting station. Within twenty‑four hours he raised a full company—the first company in the country recruited specifically for the war—which became Company C of the Second Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, with Cogswell as captain in command. He was commissioned captain on May 11, 1861, promoted to lieutenant colonel on October 23, 1862, and to colonel on June 25, 1863. In recognition of his service, President Abraham Lincoln appointed him brevet brigadier general of U.S. Volunteers on December 12, 1864, to rank from December 15, 1864; the United States Senate confirmed the appointment on February 14, 1865. Colonel and Brevet Brigadier General Cogswell was mustered out of the volunteer service on July 24, 1865, after which he resumed the practice of law.

Following the Civil War, Cogswell embarked on a substantial career in state and local government in Massachusetts. Returning to Salem, he re‑established his legal practice and quickly entered public life. He served as mayor of Salem from 1867 to 1869, and again in 1873 and 1874, overseeing municipal affairs during a period of postwar adjustment and local growth. At the state level, he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1870 and 1871, and later returned to that body for additional terms from 1881 to 1883. He also served in the Massachusetts State Senate in 1885 and 1886. A committed Republican, Cogswell’s legislative work at the state level helped shape his reputation as a capable and reliable party leader, and he was chosen as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1892, reflecting his standing within the party both in Massachusetts and nationally.

Cogswell’s federal legislative career began with his election as a Republican to the Fiftieth Congress. He was elected as a Representative from Massachusetts and served in the United States House of Representatives from March 4, 1887, until his death on May 22, 1895, thereby completing service in five consecutive Congresses. During this decade in the House, he participated in the legislative process at a time of significant economic and political change in the United States, representing the interests of his Massachusetts constituents and contributing to debates on issues central to the late nineteenth century. As a member of the Republican Party, he was part of the majority and minority coalitions that alternated control of the House during this era, and his tenure coincided with the broader evolution of federal policy in the Gilded Age. William Cogswell’s service in Congress thus occurred during a significant period in American history, and he took part in the democratic process at the national level as a long‑serving member of the House of Representatives.

In his personal life, Cogswell married Emma Thorndike Proctor on June 20, 1865, shortly after the end of the Civil War. The couple had two children, William and Emma Silsby Cogswell. Emma Thorndike Proctor Cogswell died on April 1, 1877. On December 12, 1881, Cogswell married Eva M. Davis; they remained married until his death and had no children together. While serving in Congress, Cogswell died in office in Washington, D.C., on May 22, 1895. He was interred in Harmony Grove Cemetery in Salem, Massachusetts. His career placed him among the ranks of Union brevet generals and among those members of the United States Congress who died in office in the nineteenth century, and his life and character were later commemorated in the volume “Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of William Cogswell (late a Representative from Massachusetts): Delivered in the House of Representatives and Senate, Fifty‑fourth Congress, First and Second Sessions” (1897).