J.M. Fowler enlisted in Captain W. H. Sims’ Company H, 15th Regiment South Carolina Volunteers on September 11, 1861 at Mount Tabor in Union County. He was mustered into military service on September 16, 1861 at Lightwood Knot Springs near Columbia.

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Marion Fowler, son of Stephen Fowler, enlisted on the same day and place as J.M. Fowler: September 11, 1861 at Mount Tabor.

It is my belief that J. M. Fowler was also a son of Stephen Fowler. It is my belief that J.M. Fowler was James Morman Fowler, born in 1829 and who died after 1870.

With one exception , all entries for the military records for this man are under the name of J.M. Fowler. The exception is the Header Card which reads J. Marion Fowler.

My speculation of this consists of the knowledge that two Fowler men enlisted on the same day: Marion Fowler and J. M. Fowler.

I attribute “J. Marion Fowler” as a mix-up of the names Marion and Morman. Am I right? I do not know. I do know that there was no other man born in the appropriate time frame in Union County with the name J.M Fowler or J. Marion Fowler other than (James) Morman Fowler.

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The Company Muster Rolls for September 1861-April 1862 reveal to us that J.M. Fowler was “present” in his regiment with no illness, capture, or furloughs.

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The Company Muster Rolls for May-October 1862 are not in his folder, although there are records stating that he was admitted in Winder Hospital at Richmond, Virginia on September 29, 1862, and afterwards granted Furlough on October 9, 1862 for twenty days.

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Named for General John Henry Winder (1800-1865), the Camp Winder Hospital in Richmond was easily the largest Confederate hospital with 98 buildings and eventually a 5000 patient capacity.

The hospital, like the man it was named after, had an unpleasant reputation. Filthy living conditions, starvation, and ill treatment of both Confederate hospital patients and Union Army prisoners alike made General Winder a controversial figure in his roles as provost marshal of Richmond and the general of Confederate prisons.

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The Company Muster Roll for November/December 1862 reported “absent, sick” for J.M. Fowler. He had recovered by the first of the new year as he was “present” for the January/February 1863 Roll Call.

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The March/April 1863 Muster Roll Call is missing. However, there are documents within his file that reveal his movements during this time.

J.M Fowler had been admitted into Wayside Hospital/General Hospital #9 at Richmond, Virginia prior to March 14, 1863, for that was the day he was transferred to Chimborazo Hospital #5 in Richmond.

Used previously as a tobacco warehouse, Wayside Hospital #9 (also known as Seabrook Hospital) was a transit hospital. Confederate soldiers were examined and given basic care for their immediate medical needs in these “wayside” hospitals, and then sent to hospitals better equipped to care for the sick or wounded men.

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Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond was built specifically to treat the Confederate Army injured and sick. Between the beginning of the war in 1861 until the end in 1865, over 78,ooo soldiers came through its doors. Only six to eight thousand did not make it out alive, thus this hospital had one of the lowest mortality rates of of Civil War hospitals.

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A most serious illness kept J.M. Fowler off the battlefield. He was shuffled from hospital to hospital as a result of his diagnosis: secondary syphilis.

It is a fact that more soldiers died from disease than on Civil War battlefields. Illness was unavoidable: these men lived in close quarters in filthy conditions. There was scant medical knowledge of how diseases spread. There were no antibiotics at the time. Many so called “cures” were often worse than the disease.

Since I research the Fowler family, I must mention that Thomas Fowler (1736-1801) of Stafford, England was convinced that a solution containing 1% potassium arsenite a suitable treatment for several diseases, including sylphilis. Fowler’s Solution was frequently used until the early 1900s when it finally fell out of favor.

One of the more common treatments for syphilis was even more toxic: Mercury. Mercurous chloride likely hastened the deaths of many who suffered from syphilis. It surely made the afflicted wish for death as the effects were excruciating and the methods of administration often barbaric. I do not know who coined the phrase ‘One night with Venus, a lifetime with Mercury’ but it was a fitting expression.

The soldiers of both armies –North and South — died by the thousands of typhoid fever, smallpox, measles, tuberculosis, diarrhea, malaria, and infected battle wounds.

In order to avoid the dreaded smallpox, soldiers engaged in a dangerous practice: they would introduce pus into their own body from an infected soldier suffering from the pox. It was simply a matter of scraping a lesion from an infected man, making a cut on their own body, and wiping the infected material into the cut. This gave them immunization from smallpox.

Or not.

Smallpox and syphilis had similar looking lesions. It was not uncommon for a soldier to introduce syphilis into his body instead of smallpox. Sadly, many cases of syphilis were transmitted between soldiers in this way during the war.

J.M. Fowler stayed at Chimborazo Hospital for a month, and then he was sent to the Hospital at Huguenot Springs, Virginia.

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Planned by the Woolridge brothers, the Huguenot Springs Hotel Resort and Spa in Powhatan County, Virginia opened in 1847 and offered the local well-to-do a place of rest and relaxation.

The property was converted to a Confederate hospital in 1862, and the men lucky enough to be sent there were fed nourishing food by the local women who also nursed them back to health. Not only were their physical needs met, ministers were on hand to give spiritual comfort to the soldiers.

There are 250 men buried in unmarked graves who did not survive their wounds or illness. They, at least, had comfort at the end of life, unlike the thousands who died in battle or at other hospitals with inferior conditions and poor care.

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The convalescent hospital at Huguenot Springs may have been the only place where J.M. Fowler received true comfort and care during his illness. It is unfortunate that his stay there was brief.

On May 5, 1863, he was sent back to the Chimborazo Hospital #5 with a downgraded diagnosis of primary syphilis.

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A month later — on June 6, 1863 — J.M. Fowler was moved to Howard’s Grove Hospital in Richmond and placed into the section of the hospital where smallpox patients were treated.

Howard’s Grove had been an area of recreation before the war, but like so many places all over the south, the Confederate army took possession and turned it into a place of military operations. Its use as a hospital began June 1862; its sixty-two buildings eventually housed 1800 sick and injured men.

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.J.M. Fowler was granted furlough for thirty days on June 17, 1863. He was “absent, sick at home, left camp 30 April” for the May/June 1863 Roll Call, and “absent without leave, at home” for the July/August 1863 report. The reason for his furlough was given as dēbilitās, i.e. weakness or infirmity.

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It is obvious to this writer that Private Fowler became ill during April 1863, entered into the hospital and was transferred back and forth until he was given permission to go home. He overstayed his furlough, but returned back to his regiment sometime in September 1863. He was “present” for the Muster Rolls from September 1863 until June 1864.

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There is another gap in his military records. There are no Muster Roll Calls after July 1864 but there are other documents that prove he was in his company until the end of the war.

J.M. Fowler was admitted into the CSA General Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina on February 6, 1865 with a return to duty on March 13, 1865.

His diagnosis was typhoid fever. Considering the severity of symptoms of the disease, the lack of effective treatment, and his quick recovery time, I have to wonder if J.M. Fowler suffered from some other illness. Typhoid Fever was usually a death sentence.

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There is little information on the Confederate hospitals in Charlotte. It is known that there were at least two hospitals operating at the close of the war: the transit Wayside Hospital No. 6, the main General Hospital No. 11.

In addition to the Muster Roll Calls and hospital records: two receipts for pay received are found in the military file of J.M.Fowler:

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No doubt, the document that would have been the most important to J.M. Fowler is the one below, the undated Muster Roll of Officers and Men paroled at Greensboro, North Carolina on May 2, 1865.

The Civil War was finally over. The years of bloodshed on the battlefields had come to an end, but the heartache and hardships of the soldiers who returned home would continue for many, many years.

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It must be assumed that J.M. Fowler made his way home and resumed his life back in Union County, South Carolina. Did he die from his illness or did he live a long life and die an old man in his bed?

If this man, J.M. Fowler, was one and the same as Morman Fowler, his death occurred after 1870, the last time his name appeared in a census record.

After 1870, I find no records for either J.M. Fowler or Morman Fowler. Of course, my search for proof of his life and his eventual death will continue. I know, deep in my heart, that I will find a document buried deep in the court house, and all will be revealed.

For more information on Morman Fowler, please click on this link:

MORMAN FOWLER (1829-after 1870), Son of Stephen Fowler

March 8, 1862. George Gresham of Wilkes County, Georgia put pen to paper and signed his name to his Last Will and Testament. Four days later, he enlisted in the Confederate Georgia Infantry. Eight months later, he was dead.

Who was this southern man, turned soldier from the south, buried far from home and hearth?

Born in 1818 in Georgia, son of Kauffman Watts Gresham and Temperence Ivey, husband of Nancy Sanders Quinn, father of six sons bookended by two daughters:

• Lucy Ann Gresham (1847–1907)
• Edward Euselius Gresham (1849–1929)
• Benjamin Watson Gresham (1851–1940)
• Rufus Quinn Gresham (1855–1942)
• George A. Gresham (1857–1910)
• John Kauffman Gresham (1858–1907)
• William West Gresham (1860–1941)
• Ada Temperence Gresham (1861–1862)

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It is fortunate for all researchers of George Gresham that there is an abundance of military records to peruse. It is perhaps unfortunate that the documents — concise and straight-forward at the beginning — evolve into speculation and hearsay; thus, the fate of Private Gresham is hinted at but not entirely clear.

George Gresham traveled to Beaulieu, Georgia and enlisted under Captain Colley in the 61st Regiment Georgia Infantry Company G on March 12, 1862.

Dating back to a land grant of 1737, the Beaulieu Plantation was located on the Vernon River 12 miles south of Savannah. John Schiley and his family, owners of the home and its lands since 1854, were forced to leave and turn over the property to the Confederate government when the Civil War began.

The Beaulieu Plantation became the Beaulieu Battery under the command of Robert E. Lee, and it was here where George Gresham entered into military service in 1862.

The documents below attest to the enlistment date of Private George Grisham, the location and officer of enlistment, the Regiment and Company. The period of enlistment — “the war” — was both an ambiguous and ambitious commitment.

The Company Muster Rolls below confirm that Private Gresham was “present” from March 12 until October 31, 1862.

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George Gresham’s health declined over the next months. He was reported to be “absent, sick” for the Nov/Dec 1862, Jan/Feb 1863, and Mar/Apr 1863 Company Muster Rolls.

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Still missing from his regiment in the spring of 1863, half-hearted explanations began creeping into the Muster Roll Calls:

“absent, sick; was left at Winchester November 1862, has not been heard from since”

and

“absent, wounded, supposed to be dead“

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Rumors of his death notwithstanding, George Gresham was reported as “absent, sick” in the Company Muster Rolls of Sept/Oct 1863 and Nov/Dec 1863.

That would change in the new year. The Jan/Feb 1864 Company Muster Roll stated “was sent to hospital near Winchester Va in Nov 1862, has not been heard from since. His family heard he died sometime in 1862. His estate has been administered upon.“

The family of George Gresham back home in Georgia heard of his death, and accepted it as truth. It took the Confederate army fourteen months to finally acknowledge the possibility that the soldier they left behind in Winchester was no longer among the living.

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Bushrod Taylor built a hotel on the main street in Winchester, Virginia in the mid 1840s. The hotel was used as a military base for General Stonewall Jackson early in the war. It was later used as a military hospital for both Confederate and Union soldiers.

Was this the hospital that housed George Gresham during his illness?

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The name of George Gresham was on an undated List of Deaths in the Confederate Hospital at Winchester, Virginia.

Cause of death: Febris Typhoides (Typhoid Fever).

Date of death: December 5, 1862.

On August 10, 1863, widow Nancy S. Gresham filed a claim for settlement with the Office of the Confederate States Auditor for the War Department.

An undated Bounty Pay and Receipt Roll for Private George Gresham verified that $50 bounty pay was due to him or his estate.

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Document showing receipt of Nancy Gresham’s claim for the death of her husband George Gresham.

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George Gresham had the foresight to realize the possibility of his death in battle, and the Last Will and Testament that he left behind was presented by his widow Nancy to the Court of Wilkes County, Georgia.

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State of Georgia, Wilkes County: Document admitting the Last Will and Testament of George Gresham into record on April 6, 1863.

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Nancy Gresham was granted Executorship by the court over her late husband’s estate on July 18, 1863.

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Documents related to the military service, death, and estate settlement of Private George Gresham:

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Below is a document dated April 1864 stating that the death of George Gresham was not reported.

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George Gresham did not return home from the war. Reading between the lines of the military records, it must be presumed that he died in the hospital at Winchester, Virginia.

If the above is true, then the next question has to be “where is his grave?“

Although it is my belief that George Gresham died in Winchester, Virginia, I have not found any documentation of his burial.

In searching for the final resting place of George Gresham, I stumbled upon an entry on Find a Grave for his memorial in the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery in Lexington, Virginia. There are 144 Confederate soldiers buried in this cemetery which was originally called the Presbyterian Cemetery and is also referred to as Oak Grove Cemetery.

George Gresham died in Winchester, Virginia —127 MILES AWAY from Lexington, Virginia.

I find it extremely unlikely that the body of George Gresham was carried over a hundred miles away — during a civil war awash in bloodshed — with a confederate graveyard at hand.

Instead, it is my belief that someone confused the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery in Lexington, Virginia with the Stonewall Confederate Cemetery in Winchester, Virginia.

There are over 3000 Confederate soldiers buried at the Stonewall Confederate Cemetery (a subsection of the Mount Hebron Cemetery) in Winchester. Some died on battlefields near Winchester; others — like George Gresham — died in hospitals in Winchester.

The Stonewall Confederate graveyard is the finest I have ever seen.

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Each State has its own unique and beautiful monument standing guard over the men who lie beneath … each monument standing upright and at attention in respect for the men who fought and died for their country and her cause.

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The monument for the State of Georgia was put into place in 1884. Each side is engraved with words to honor the men who died fighting for their country, the men who sleep deeply beneath in the most Holy Ground.

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More than 800 Confederate soldiers who lie in the Stonewall Confederate Cemetery in Winchester are unidentified. Was George Gresham one of many men laid to rest with no name on a headstone?

There are two headstones in the State of Georgia section of the Stonewall Confederate Cemetery with the name “Gresham” engraved deeply into the rock. Do the bones of George Gresham lie beneath one of these markers?

I cannot answer that with one hundred percent certainty, but I believe George Gresham and one of his kinsmen lie near each other in this graveyard. I believe the final resting place of a brave soldier has been, finally, found.

Born in 1827 in Union County, South Carolina, William E. Fowler was the son of William G. Fowler (1805-1886), grandson of Israel Fowler II, and great grandson of Israel Fowler from the Isle of Wight, Virginia.

It is probable that William E. Fowler married a woman named Elizabeth before 1850. My speculation is that Elizabeth the first wife died (in child birth?) and by 1855, William E. Fowler had married Susan Wright (1833-after 1870).

Two sons were born of this union:

• William Wright Fowler (b. 1856)
• Adolphus Fowler (b. 1860)

William E. Fowler was thirty-eight years old –according to military records– when he traveled to the Union Court House and joined Captain C.W. Boyd’s Company F of the 15th South Carolina Infantry on August 29, 1861.

As did many young men of the south, William E. Fowler left his family behind and marched off to war. He was mustered into service at Lightwood Knott Springs near Columbia on September 7, 1861.

On September 14, 1862, the Battle of South Mountain took place in Maryland. Three mountain passes – Crampton’s Gap, Turner’s Gap, and Fox’s Gap – became the battlegrounds. Confederate forces, outnumbered by the Union Army of the Potomac, suffered a devastating defeat.

General Robert E. Lee was forced to withdraw his southern troops after darkness fell, but not before over 300 of his men were killed, 1500 wounded, and 800 missing.

William E. Fowler was one of the missing.

The November/December 1862 Muster Roll for his regiment reported that William E. Fowler was “Missing in Maryland near Hagerstown since September 14, 1862. Nothing heard from him since.”

Having control of the battlefields, the burial details of the Union Army began the gruesome task of burying their dead on September 15.

The dead Confederate soldiers lay scattered and in piles, on stone walls and on the cold, bloody ground.

They were finally buried in mass graves, in shallow trenches, unidentified and uncared for in death. At least 58 of the Confederate dead were thrown down the well of Daniel Wise.

It took until September 18 for all of the dead to buried.

Although the bodies of some Union soldiers were retrieved and reburied later by their families –for the most part — the deceased soldiers from both north and south remained buried near where they fell. The Union Soldiers were exhumed and reinterred in 1867 into the Antietam National Cemetery. The Confederate dead were reburied at Rose Hill Cemetery in Hagerstown in 1874.

It is doubtful that the body of William E. Fowler was ever found. It is likely that he lies in the cemetery in Hagerstown, Maryland next to the unidentified soldiers that he fought beside.

On May 27, 1864, Susan Fowler, widow of William E. Fowler, filed a claim for a settlement with the War Department for her deceased soldier husband.

I have to wonder when she found out that her husband was not coming home to her and her two young boys.

Susan Wright Fowler disappeared from records after the 1870 census.

Her son William Wright Fowler (1856-1900) married Martha Jane Johnson (1856-1934); their children:

• Magnolia Maggie Fowler (1884–1974)
• Corrie Melissa Fowler (1887–1972)
• Charles Manuel Fowler (1887–1973)
• William Wright Fowler (1889–1930)

For more information on this family:

https://henry-ellis-fowler.com/2022/04/16/wright-fowler-1856-before-1900-martha-jane-johnson-1856-1934/

For more information on the Burial of the Dead, I found this wonderful history:

https://www.historynet.com/confederate-bodies-daniel-wise-well/