Major-General John S. Bowen was born in Georgia in 1829. He was appointed to the United States military academy in 1848 and on graduation was promoted to brevet second-lieutenant, July 1, 1853. Being assigned to the Mounted Rifles, he served at the Carlisle cavalry school, and on the frontier, with promotion to second lieutenant on July 20, 1854. He resigned his commission on the 1st of May, 1856, and became an architect in Savannah, GA, continuing to gratify his military tastes as lieutenant-colonel of Georgia militia. He removed to St. Louis, Mo., in 1857, where he also followed the business of an architect. From 1859 to 1861 he was captain in the Missouri militia. He was adjutant to General Frost during his expedition to the Kansas border in search of Montgomery, a prominent character in the Kansas troubles. When the civil war began he commanded the Second regiment of Frost's brigade. He was acting chief-of-staff to Frost when Camp Jackson was captured by General Lyon. Going to Memphis, Tenn., and into the southeastern part of Missouri, he raised the First Missouri regiment of infantry, of which he was commissioned colonel on June 11, 1861. He was assigned to the army of General Polk at Columbus, Ky., and acted as brigade commander under that officer's command. When in the spring of 1862 Albert Sidney Johnston and Beauregard were concentrating their armies for an attack upon Grant, Bowen, who on March 14h had received his commission as brigadier-general, was assigned to the division of John C. Breckinridge. In the first day's battle at Shiloh he was wounded. General Beauregard, in his official report of the battle thus speaks: "Brig.Gens. B. R. Johnson and Bowen, most meritorious officers, were also severely wounded in the first combat, but it is hoped will soon be able to return to duty with their brigades." When in 1863 Grant crossed the Mississippi and landed at Bruinsburg, General Bowen, though fearfully outnumbered, threw himself in his path and with the utmost courage and determination, resisted his advance. After a patriotic sacrifice he was forced back upon the main army under Pemberton. On the 25th of May he was rewarded for his brave work at Port Gibson by the commission of major-general in the army of the Confederate States. He fought with distinction in the other battles outside of Vicksburg, and in all the fighting and suffering of the long siege he and his men had their full share. At the fall of the city he was paroled, and went to Raymond, Miss., where he died from sickness contracted during the siege, July 16, 1863.