John Stevens Bowen

From Dixiepedia: The PC-Free Encyclopedia

John Stevens Bowen (30 October 1830 - 13 July 1863) was born in Savannah, Georgia. After finishing 13th from West Point's 1853 class, Bowen was assigned to frontier duty. In May 1856, he resigned his commission to move to St. Louis, Missouri and work as an architect. At the beginning of the War Between the States, he was a captain with the Missouri State Militia and was taken prisoner when Camp Jackson was seized in May 1861. On his release, he quickly organized the 1st Missouri Infantry and was advanced to Brigadier General in May 1862. He fought at Shiloh and the battles leading up to the Siege of Vicksburg in Mississippi, and after Port Gibson he was promoted to Major General on 25 May 1863. On the 3rd of July of that year, Bowen met with Major General Ulysses S. Grant to negotiate the unconditional surrender of Confederate troops at Vicksburg. He was paroled but died of dysentery on the 13th of July on a farm outside Raymond, Mississippi. He was buried at the farm but in July 1887, his remains were moved to the Confederate Cemetery in Vicksburg.