I am the great grandson of Garret Crawford Gowan / Gowen/ Gowin .
Great Grandpa was from Attala Co. MS and signed on with the local Long Creek Rifles as a volunteer in early 1861. The Long Creek Rifles walked to Corinth MS and in May of 1861 were mustered into the CSA as Company A , 15th Mississippi Infantry .
After training they were first assigned to Gen. Crittenden's command ,and went along with his expedition into Kentucky and the Cumberland . They tasted first blood at the Battle of Mills Springs , or some call Fishing Creek in Jan. of 62 , a fight that turned into a rout for the Confederacy . Later on he fought at Shiloh under Gen Breckenridge ,where Great Grandpa and the 15th put forth a brave action on the 1st day of that tremendous fight.
Then he saw action under Beauregard at the first Battle of Corinth and the Battles of the Vicksburg Bluffs . He took part in the Battle of Baton Rouge was briefly at Port Hudson LA , but not involved in the siege there. He and the 15th took part in the battles against Grant to defend Jackson MS., culminating in the vicious ,fateful fight at Champion Hill or Bakers Creek. Here he got separated from his 15thMS Reg. & division of Gen Loring and fell in with the rest of Gen Pemberton's troops heading back into to Vicksburg after the loss at Champion Hill. Great Granpa endured the Seige of Vicksburg and was there captured on July 3rd 1863 , later to be paroled . What became of his military service thereafter ,and for the next few years I have not been able to assertain. The 15th Miss however went on to fight many more battles until the bitter end after Bentonville NC. Garret was a farmer in Attala after the war and at some point migrated out to Lamar Co. Tx / Paris area
where he met and married my great grandmother Martha Lurania Trousdale . They had 5 kids , including my grandfather Robert Isaac. Garret got word that his mother was ill back in Attala Co and traveled there to see her in 1888 . Once there he himself fell ill and died of pneumonia , never returning to his young wife and babies again. This is the real story of those times as I know them.
So! My friend , we are cousins , as Philip and I are also.
Small world ! Big family.....