Thomas Cowan, Jr.

He read the law and passed the bar in 1860, beginning his practice (likely in Wilmington). He enlisted in the Wilmington Light Infantry (militia) in April 1861, and was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, Company B, 3rd North Carolina Infantry on 16 May 1861. He was promoted to First Lieutenant in July 1862.

He led the Company on South Mountain, and was mortally wounded in the head in action on 17 September 1862 at Sharpsburg and was captured there.

... he was re-moved by the Federal authorities to Washington on Thursday, the day succeeding the battle, and lingered in suffering until the light of the Sabbath morning [5 October 1862] fell on a brow whence care and pain had departed forevermore. Consigned at first to the rude grave of the prisoner, he was afterwards committed to consecrated ground, with the solemn service of the church, and the tears of the noble women who ministered at his couch, who in the stranger and oppressor's land, loved him for his country's sake.

Service information from Moore.1 Further details from his death notice in the Fayetteville Observer of 12 January 1863, transcribed by Myrtle Bridges on NC GenWeb. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

04/08/1839

10/04/1862; Washington, DC; burial in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA