James Oscar Cowger

Age 22, he enrolled and mustered on 15 May 1861 as a Private in Company F, 19th Mississippi Infantry at Oxford, MS.

He was wounded by a gunshot in the leg in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.

He was in hospitals in Richmond, VA to 6 April 1863, then returned to duty. He was wounded again, on 8 September 1864, place not given, and furloughed home to Oxford from a Richmond hospital for 60 days on 22 October. His furlough was extended by 30 days on 21 January and 21 February 1865 by a medical board in Grenada, MS, and he was surrendered there on 4 May 1865 and paroled on 18 May 1865.

He farmed in Lafayette and Calhoun Counties, MS to about 1885, then in Texas. He was first in Colin County, to about 1890, then Palo Pinto County. In 1910 he was still farming at age 70.

His service from his Compiled Military Service Records (CSRs),1 online from fold3. His Sharpsburg wound also on a casualty list in the New Orleans Times-Picayune of 29 October 1862, as J.C. Cowyer. Personal details from family genealogists, a feature in the Palo Pinto County Star of 10 May 1957 [online], and the US Census of 1880 and 1910; he changed the spelling of his surname to Couger on moving to Texas. His gravesite is on Findagrave, as James Oscar Couger.

He married Mary Margaret Rogers (1850-1889) in January 1873 and they had 10 children; at least 6 survived childhood.

Seven pages of his family bible are in the collection of the Library of Virginia in Richmond [finding aid, PDF].

11/02/1839; Oxford, MS

12/06/1915; Palo Pinto County, TX; burial in McAdams Cemetery, Graford, TX