I'm hitting some dead ends on this. So far, census records have shown the surname as Cogan. I have a birthplace of Georgia based on censuses, but some say his birthplaces is New York as well. I find him on an 1850 census in Beat 11, Randolph County, Alabama with a father named Dennis Cogan who was born in Maryland around 1802 but continued to be in Alabama after James Cogan left. I am finding few immigration records for Cogans that early.