The Noel Read Stowe family has a number of ancestors that served the Confederacy during the Civil War (circa 1861 to 1865). I have grouped these into the following related families: Dowdell, Read, Stowe, Lively and Owen. Almost every southern male between the ages of 13 and 70 served the South. A large number of the Dowdell family served and I have included only a few here. I probably failed to identify many Stowes and Livelys. A more complete roster will have to wait. I have also included, when available, portraits and photographs of individuals listed. One Christmas Becky researched and compiled a gazetteer (map) locating the battlefields in Mississippi where the 37th Alabama fought. We have visited some of these battlefields and have included maps and photographs. In addition, we have visited some of the home sites and grave locations. Occasionally, I have incorporated anecdotes pertaining to individuals and events. Finally, I have included a brief list of references.
The following is a list and brief description of family members who served during the nation’s most dramatic event; more men died in this war than any other in U. S. history.
James Ferguson Dowdell (born 1818-died1871).
Portrait painted by James Massalon, an English artist. Original in the possession of Bill Bowling, Pine Mountain, Ga.
My Great Great Grandfather was born in Greenville, Jasper County, Georgia. He graduated from Randolph Macon College at, or near, the top of his class and in-turn read law under General Hugh Haralson, LaGrange, Georgia. Later in life he moved to Oak Bowery, Alabama. He was elected to the Democratic Party in the 33rd, 34th and 35th U. S. Congresses. He voted for and signed the Ordinance of Succession. About a year into the Civil War he was elected Colonel and Commander of the 37th Alabama Infantry. The troops were drawn from counties in east central Alabama and mustered at Auburn, AL. At the outset every unit required a flag. Their flag, which now occupies the position of honor along with his sword in the center of the Archives and History Dept. at Auburn University, was sewn by his cousin Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas Dowdell. It is one of which is often referred to as the Confederate battle flag. The south had been under blockade for a year and cloth was at a premium. Elizabeth had some wool, merino (a type of wool), and cashmere. Elizabeth had bought the cloth earlier to make clothes for her children. The flag is St. Andrews Cross, with a white border and 13 stars on a red field. The cross is surrounded by the various battles fought by the 37th (Corinth, Hatchie Bridge and Vicksburg). Iuka, where the 37th “met the elephant” is in the center The Dowdell’s slave Chance made the flag staff. Elizabeth gave the flag to Col. Dowdell who presented the flag to the Unit the following day at Auburn. This is one of the unit’s flags and there are several additional interesting stories associated with the it.
After numerous days of military drilling in Auburn, the 37th traveled by train from Auburn to Montgomery where they boarded a steamboat and traveled down the Alabama River to Mobile. In Mobile they got on the Mobile and Ohio RR and traveled towards Corinth in northeastern Mississippi. Their first engagement with the Union troops was at Iuka, Mississippi. A catastrophic event took place at Iuka when one of their commanding officers, General Little, was killed. From Iuka they went on to Corinth and Hatchie Bridge and ultimately became part of the Garrison at Vicksburg. They surrendered with the rest of General Pemberton’s troops on July 4, 1863.
The surrender was made to Union General Ulysses Grant and Col. Dowdell and his men were in-turn paroled. Grant ordered that all Confederate battle flags be turned over during this surrender. Failure to relinquish the flag would be a capitol offence and the officer executed. Dowdell folded the 37th flag and placed it under his slave servant Chance’s saddle blanket. As noted, the flag survives, and though tattered, is the central display at the Auburn University Archives.
Another story regarding the flag deserves telling: The President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis and General Joseph E. Johnson reviewed the troops at Grenada, MS. Most of the units broke out new battle flags for the review. Having none, the 37th used their tattered old battle flag. President Davis, taking Col. Dowdell by the hand said “How are you my old friend?”, and waving his hand at the tattered flag, remarked “That old battle scarred flag tells me where you boys have been.” Taking notice of this, the next day the other units broke out their old flags. However, Davis had seen enough.
Battle Flag of the 37th Alabama
Col. Dowdell returned to Auburn and became President of East Alabama Male College (later renamed Auburn University) from 1866 to 1871. However, the Siege of Vicksburg had broken his health. He died in 1871 and is buried in the Pine Hill Cemetery in Auburn one block east of Samford Hall Administration building.
Perhaps his greatest recommendation is from one of his men “All of the Boys loves Col. Dowdil and would fite with him anywhere.”
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Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court Judge James Render Dowdell (born 1818 -died 1921). During the war Judge Dowdell was a cadet at the University of Alabama. He was at the school when it was burned by the Yankees. The cadet Corps served in both Mobile and North Alabama. He also fought with Rousseau’s Raiders at Chehaw and General Corxtons Brigade at Tuscaloosa. He was paroled at Opelika. Judge Read is buried in Westview Cemetery, LaFayette, Chambers County, Alabama.
Judge James Render Dowdell
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Private Algernon George Dowdell (1843-1908) was the general ward manager in the 37th Alabama Regimental Medical staff under Dr. J. W. Oslin.
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Lewis S. Dowdell served in the 47th Alabama
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William Crawford “Crawf” Dowdell (born 1826 – died 1901) enlisted in Captain Wallis’s Command Alabama Home Guard. Crawf is buried in the Pine Hill Cemetery.
William Crawford "Crawf" Dowdell and his wife
with Auburn Cadets
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Pvt. Andrew A. Dowdell served in the 41st Infantry Picken’s Grays in West Alabama.
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Dr. Andrew Hamil Read (born 1836- died1911) was my namesake and Great Grandfather. He was appointed Assistant Surgeon in the Hospital Service in the 64th Georgia Regt. He was later assigned to the Army of Northern Virginia. He surrendered with Gen. Lee's forces on April 19, 1865 and was paroled at Appomattox. Dr. Read is buried in Rosmere Cemetery, Opelika, Alabama.
Dr. Andrew H. Read
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Thomas Asa Read served in the confederate army
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Henry Clay Read served in the confederate army
Pvt. Daniel Grant Owen (born 1830 -died 1882) was married to both Sarah Read and, after her death, to her sister Emma Read. Sarah and Emma are Dr. Andrew Read’s sisters and my great aunts. “Uncle Dan was in the Talbot Grenadiers (1862). a.k.a. Company I, 46th Georgia Infantry, Army of Tennessee. This unit fought in 21 engagements including the Vicksburg Campaign Chickamauga, Atlanta and Kennesaw Mountains. He was captured at Marietta, Georgia June 20 1864 and paroled at Camp Norton, Indiana in 1865
Dan Owen and Emma (Read) Owen
_________________________________________________________ My Great Aunt Emma who I called “Auntie” lived to 103 years old. She is indeed a Confederate Soldiers’ widow and my direct contact with the Civil War. When she was in her late 90s it was my job to “tend her”. I spent summers at the Owen home “The Elms” in Pleasant Hill just east of Woodland, GA. Part of my job was to check on Auntie about every 30 minutes. She had a coal fire in her bedroom grate every day of the year. She, like many of the older women in the family, wore the same type of black dress every day. The front of the dress was “peppered” with holes from the coal sparking from the grate. She would begin rocking on one side of the room and cross the floor to the fireplace. When she approached the fire it was my job to drag the chair and her back across the floor to her point of origin. During these sessions she described to me in detail what life was like on the plantation during the 19th Century.
My Grandmother Stowe, me, and Auntie on
her 100th birthday
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Edmund Blunt McCrary (1838-1926)
My Great Grandfather on my Mother’s side joined the Sumter Light Guards Fourth Georgia’s volunteer Infantry in 1861 at Americus Georgia. On the back of this photograph his age is listed at 15 years old. However, he appears younger.
Interestingly, the unit had one black soldier, a Corporal.
The unit, part of the Army of Northern Virginia, participated in approximately 25 engagements including Malvern Hill, Antietam, Gettysburg, The Wilderness, Cold Harbor and Appomattox Courthouse. Edmond may have been wounded at Petersburg, taken prisoner and paroled at Heart Island New York in 1865.
Edmund Blunt McCrary
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Alexander Lively (born 1832- died 1912) Was my Great Great Grandfather. He served in the 2nd Georgia Hussars C. S. A. Alexander was a Justice of the Peace for many years in southeast Georgia and served in the Georgia Legislature.
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Dr. John Ashley Stowe (1823-1903) My Great Grandfather lived at Stowe's Ferry on the Tallapoosa River.
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Joel C. Stowe (born 1837 – died 1864). 1st cousin. Corporal Company C. 50th Tenn Regt. He was killed at Gettysburg, PA and buried on the battlefield near the Cumberland River.
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Pvt. Abraham Leroy Stowe (1st cousin) born 1847 died 1923. Private Company B (Hatch’s) Regiment Alabama Calvary, CSA. He surrendered to General Canby USA at Citronelle, Alabama. He appeared on the muster roll of Co. B, 8th Regt. and being paroled at Gainesville, Alabama.
__________________________________________________________ Stowe’s Ferry
In 1864 General William Tecumseh Sherman sent Major General Lovell H. Rosseau on a raid from Decatur, AL to Montgomery, AL to cut the railroad from Montgomery to Atlanta. Rousseau’s men traded their exhausted calvary horses for fresh ones at the horse lot of My Great Grand Uncle Abraham Robinson Stowe in Tallapoosa County. They in-turn pillaged and burned the surrounding areas.
In the evening, they reached Stowe’s Ferry on the Tallapoosa River. They then crossed the river on the shoals above the ferry. In the process they forced, at gunpoint, an old black man to show them the river ford. In crossing he fell off his mule and drowned after. The raiders then arrived at Dadeville, AL about church time skirmishing in route with a party of Confederates who had been sent out to destroy Stowe’s Ferry, in order to delay the Union troops.
Stowe Family (Dr. John Ashley Stowe)
