John Rube Fowler, born c. 1837, was the son of Reuben Fowler (1797-after 1860). Reuben Fowler has been my greatest research brick wall for many, many years. My great grandfather Thomas Gillman Fowler (1858-1944) was in the Reuben Fowler household in 1860 … thus my interest in this particular Fowler family.

Twenty-five year old John Rube Fowler joined Captain C.W. Boyd’s 15th Regiment South Carolina Volunteers on August 29, 1861 at the Union Court House.

John Rube Fowler was admitted to the CSA hospital in Charlottesville, Virginia on September 4, 1862. He was sent to the general hospital at Lynchburg the next day. His ailment? A gunshot wound (vulnus sclopetarium).

He was furloughed for 60 days –October 6 to December 6, 1862 — to recover from his wound. His signature is on the following receipt for money given to him for rations during his sick leave :

John Rube Fowler was with his 15th Regiment which had been consolidated with the 7th Regiment near the end of the war. The Regiment was surrendered, to General Sherman in Greensboro, North Carolina on April 26, 1865. Four years of battles, starvation, disease, harsh living conditions; John Rube Fowler was going home.

John Rube Fowler was married to a much older woman —Jane (Moseley?) (1851-after 1870). There had been a daughter born in 1851, Malissa, who may have been the daughter of Jane and another husband from a previous marriage.

I am almost certain that John Rube Fowler married Francis Hall (b. 1860) about 1882. Both appeared in the 1900 census in Cowpens, Spartanburg County.

I can find no record of his death, but there was an article published in the Union Times on April 12, 1912 and it was stated that John Rube Fowler was one of the members of Captain Boyd’s Regiment that had “passed over the river to rest under the shade of the trees“

John Rube Fowler is buried on a grassy corner in Gilead Baptist Church Cemetery. His grave is marked with a military headstone and a Confederate Cross. He lies near the unmarked graves of his sisters Mary Fowler and Martha Fowler.