John Alexander Sowell

In 1860 he was a 20 year old student living with his parents, 7 younger siblings, and 3 slaves on their farm at Jefferson in the Kershaw District, SC. He enlisted at Camden, SC on 24 April 1861 and mustered as a Private in Company G of the 2nd South Carolina Infantry on 22 May. He was promoted to 4th Corporal between May and September 1862.

He was wounded in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.

He was admitted to a hospital in Richmond, VA on 27 September and furloughed home for 30 days on 5 October 1862. He was 3rd Corporal by February 1863 and was wounded again, in the hand and thigh at Gettysburg, PA on 2 July 1863 and captured there on the 4th. He was in the DeCamp General Hospital in New York Harbor by 24 July, paroled there on 24 August, and in a hospital in Williamsburg, VA on 28 August. He was furloughed on 3 September 1863. He was admitted to a hospital in Danville, VA for a gunshot wound to his neck on 16 June 1864 - he had probably been wounded in the Wilderness, VA in May. He was surrendered and paroled at Greensboro, NC on 2 May 1865.

In 1870 he was a farm worker at Tiller's Ferry in Kershaw County, SC and in 1880 was farming his own place there. By 1900 and to at least 1910 he was a farmer in Madison County, TX.

His service from his Compiled Service Records,1 online from fold3. Personal details from family genealogists, notably Mary Sowell Hays and Carolyn E. Sowell in A History of the John Alexander and Laura Hilton Sowell Family (1973)[pdf], and the US Census of 1860-1910. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Laura Hilton (1842-1921) in December 1865 and they had 8 children.

01/11/1840; Darlington, SC

06/04/1917; Madison County, TX; burial in Allphin Cemetery, Midway, TX