Robert Cobb Kennedy (October 25, 1835 – March 25, 1865) was a Confederate operative who was hanged for his role in a failed plot to burn New York City during the American Civil War.

His family relocated to Alabama shortly after his birth, but due to declining fortunes they moved again to northwest Louisiana in 1846, settling in Claiborne Parish.

He entered in the same class as Joseph Wheeler and Edwin H. Stoughton, who would both later serve as generals on opposing sides of the Civil War, but Kennedy proved a poor student.

He accumulated numerous demerits and a poor academic record, and was finally thrown out after two years of study when he was caught drunk off-campus with another cadet.

[4] In 1864, Kennedy joined a small group of fellow Confederate operatives in a plot to burn New York City in retaliation for General Sheridan's scorched-earth tactics in Virginia.

While most of the conspirators proceeded as planned, Kennedy added his own twist, using one of his incendiaries to set a fire at Barnum's American Museum, allegedly because "it would be fun to start a scare."

He was transported to Fort Lafayette to a military hearing chaired by General Fitz Henry Warren, while being represented by former West Point classmate Edwin Stoughton.