Charles Bowen, born in Jackson County, Tennessee, on February 28, 1814, was a prominent planter in Mississippi County. At the beginning of the Civil War, he raised a volunteer company called the "Osceola Hornets", which became (2nd) Co. I, 9th Arkansas Infantry. He served as captain of the Osceola Hornets until he was elected sheriff of Mississippi County in 1863. He subsequently raised another company in Mississippi County, where he seems to have operated as a sort of guerrilla leader. After the war he was elected Mississippi County judge. There is a biographical sketch of him in Goodspeed's History of Mississippi County.