Curtis Bowne

In 1860 he was an 18 year old printer living in Trenton, NJ. He was a printer at the Guardian in Paterson, NJ when he enlisted as a Private in Company K, 13th New Jersey Infantry on 14 August 1862.

He was mortally wounded in the head in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862 by a buckshot which fractured and depressed his frontal bone. At first he did not think he was really hurt:

[The evening of 17 September] I was, with some other men, sent down the road to guard some cattle that were to be killed in the morning for fresh beef. To my delight I found two other members of my company detailed on the same duty. They were Curtis Bowne and E. L. Allen, both old printing-office associates, too.

There were twelve cattle in the drove that we were to guard, under the charge of a corporal. We got them in a corner of a field, and divided ourselves up into three "reliefs," that is, one of us was to watch for two hours while the others slept, when our turns would be changed, so that each man wouldhave "two hours on and four off," according to the regular custom. We lighted a fire, cooked some coffee, and had a smoke before turning in for a rest. The conversation of course turned on the events of the day, and particularly on the death of Captain Irish. Then we began to talk about the wounded members of Company K.

"By the way," said Bowne, "I got a little dose of it myself. Look at this." He took off his cap and turned his face toward the camp fire. In the middle of his forehead there was a small round bruise, as if it had been hit with a stone. "What is it?" I asked. "I don't know. I think I must have been hit by a spent ball that just bruised the skin without entering." "You are sure that it did not go into your brains?" I remarked laughingly. I had no more of an idea of such a thing than Curt did. "No!" he answered good-naturedly. "My brains are not as soft as that." "Does it hurt?" I asked. "Not a bit," was the answer. "It is nothing - not worth talking about."

He remained with his company until beginning to suffer with head pain, then was admitted to US Army General Hospital #1 in Frederick, MD on 23 September. He was transferred to Satterlee US Army General Hospital in West Philadelphia, PA on 29 September and was treated for a simple scalp wound until he began having convulsions on 22 February 1863. The next day his surgeon opened his skull by trephination and found and removed the shot, along with pieces of bone. Curt seemed better afterward, but within 3 days began to fail, and he died on 3 March 1863.

An autopsy found it was a brain abscess caused by his wound which eventually killed him.

He was originally buried in Philadelphia, but was reinterred in Cedar Lawn in Paterson in 1867 or later.

Initial casualty information from Nelson,1 also as Curtis Brown. His service from the Record.2 Wound and hospital details from the Patient List,3 as Curtis Browne, and the MSHWR,4 as Curtis Brown. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860. His gravesite is on Findagrave; his stone has his age at death as 21 years and 6 months. The quote above from Joseph Crowell, author of The Young Volunteer: The Everyday Experiences of a Soldier Boy in the Civil War (1906), also of the 13th Regiment.

c. 1842; Fishkill, NY

03/03/1863; Philadelphia, PA; burial in Cedar Lawn Cemetery, Paterson, NJ