Thomas Pinckney Bowman

In 1860 he was a 21 year old overseer for his planter father Ryal (16 slaves) on Bowman Town plantation near Lawsonville in Rockingham County, NC, and owned 3 slaves of his own. He enlisted in Lawsonville on 30 May 1861 and mustered as a Private in Company K of the 3rd North Carolina Infantry at Suffolk, VA on 3 June. The regiment was re-designated the 13th North Carolina Infantry on 14 November 1861.

He was wounded in action at Fox's Gap on South Mountain on 14 September 1862.

He was away on wounded furlough to 1 March 1863, and afterward listed as absent without leave and, eventually, a deserter from that date. He returned (or was forcibly returned) to duty in about February 1864, and was wounded again, on 5 May 1864 at Spotsylvania Court House, VA. He was absent, wounded, to at least October 1864, the latest record in his military file.

By 1870 he was farming in Irwin County, GA, but he returned to Rockingham County, NC about 2 years later. He was hung in 1879 having been (repeatedly) convicted of the 1877 murder, by poison, of his wife. He proclaimed his innocence to his death.

His service from Moore's Roster 1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 online from fold3. Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860 & 1870, and his "Autobiography" as reprinted in the Asheboro, NC Courier of 5 October 1911 and 5 January 1922 (via newspapers.com).

He married Theresa Ann Cannon (1830-1877) in December 1856, and they had 5 children; four died young, daughter Eliza Jane survived her parents.

08/18/1839; Rockingham County, NC

08/30/1879; Asheboro, NC