 Cobb was reelected to six additional terms, consistently defeating more affluent, better educated opponents from Huntsville, including Clement Claiborne Clay, by the majority vote of the plain folk of the hill country.Cobb was a strong Unionist and opponent of secession, and when Alabama did secede in 1861, he withdrew from Congress only reluctantly.He ran unsuccessfully for the Confederate House of Representatives in 1861, but was elected to the Second Confederate Congress in 1863 amid growing antiwar sentiment.