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Pvt. HENRY COWDEN served two years in the Union Army during the most traumatic episode in American history -- The Civil War.
At the moment in time when Pvt. Cowden entered the Union Army, the North was decidedly losing the War Between the States due primarily to a severe shortage of personnel in the battlefield. Attempts to recruit more male cizens by imposing a draft in 1863 were just as decidely unsuccessful. Attempts to impose conscription were met with murderous riots against African-Americans by poor white Irish, German and other immigrants in cities (most famously New York City); and with legal draft-dodging by those individuals wealthy enough to find and pay a substitute $300* to serve in their stead. (*Equal to about $6,000 in 2005 dollars.)
African-Americans were not considered "fit" - read 'intelligent enough' - to serve in the military but the Union Army was desperate. In late 1863 President Lincoln reluctantly signed an order allowing African-Americans to serve in the armed forces. Some 300,000 men of African descent came to the nation's rescue by answering the call to duty.
U.S. Army issued tombstone of Pvt. HENRY COWDEN at Aspen Grove Cemetery in Burlington, Iowa. (Photo in 2005 by Mr. Terry Strother)
The information herein has been obtained from the original pension records of the soldier, records of the Iowa Adjutant General and independent research.
ANSWERING THE CALL TO ARMS
African-Americans - free, enslaved, and escaped slaves - volunteered to serve despite the fact the U.S. Constitution [Art.I, Sec.2, cl.3] declared members of their race to be only 3/5's of a human being. Even so, "negroes" came forth and literally won the Civil War for the Union Army...and in so doing...changed the course of history.
The United States of America, and the American people, owe an eternal debt of gratitude to the brave and patriotic African-American soldiers and sailors that saved the nation.
This website is in honor of those great American citizens, freedom fighters of the War of the Rebellion - and, in memory of my great-great grandfather, Pvt. HENRY COWDEN, 60th USCT.
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SERVICE BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY
Like many of his brethren, Pvt. HENRY COWDEN gave his health and ultimately his life, dying 30 years later from the injuries he received during his service to the United States of America. Pvt. HENRY COWDEN was mustered into the 60th Regiment, U.S. Colored Troops, also known as the First Iowa Infantry of Volunteers of African Descent on September 10, 1863 at Benton Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri.
HENRY COWDEN walked away from enslavement at his home near Booneville, Cooper County, Missouri and volunteered to join the Union Army at Sedalia, Missouri under Capt. Jos. T. Farris. Pvt HENRY COWDEN served in Company K under Capt. Ralph Teller and Col. John Hudson.
In late 1863 Pvt HENRY COWDEN was wounded in the right leg when a bayonet fell off the rifle of the soldier in the bunk above. He was treated by the Regimental Surgeon in Quarters, Dr. [?] Patton and hospitalized at Helena, Arkansas about July, 1864.
In an affidavit taken in 1891 Capt. Ferris testified that "...I kept him [referring to Pvt HENRY COWDEN] as an orderly about my Office on account of some weakness of this leg that kept him from Hard Service..."
Company K went to DuVall's Bluff, Arkansas, and on to Jacksonport, Arkansas where they were engaged in escort duty and served as the civil law enforcers and local occupying Union Army soldiers in that part of Arkansas. Pvt HENRY COWDEN was honorably discharged from service at DeVall's Bluff, Arkansas on or about October 15, 1865, and was mustered out at Davenport, Iowa on November 2, 1865.
A LIFE OF FREEDOM AND PAIN
According to his own testimony, Pvt. HENRY COWDEN was born in Maryland and brought to Randolph County, Missouri at a young age as a slave. In 1863 he was being hired-out by his slaveowner, Judge David Todd, to work in a "tobacco factory" when he followed Union Troops in the vicinity to Sedalia, Missouri where he enlisted.*
On Nov. 15, 1895, John W. Smith and Henry Cooper, upstanding [white] citizens of Burlington, Iowa made the following affirmations:
"[We] have known Henry Cowden, the claimant intimately for 12 & 31 years [respectively] and [are] well-acquainted with his habits & capacity for work, & say that by reason of the disabilities alleged by him he is entirely & completely incapacitated for manual labor of any sort. He is a man of good & temperate habits & always has been, & these disabilities are not the result of vicious habits on his part; and in our belief & opinion they are permanent. He has a large tumor or abcess of some kind on his right leg above the knee & has recently been in the hospital for some 2 months & had an operation performed. He is now confined to his house & unable to do any thing at all & probably never will. He has ulceration and blood poisoning in the right leg & knee caused by a bayonet wound in right ankle, during his service..."*
Pvt HENRY COWDEN died within a few weeks of these affidavits after a life that had taken him from slavery to freedom.
*** ABOUT THE RESEARCH ***
*-From affidavits filed in the claim for pension of Pvt. Henry Cowden (misspelled at enlistment as Henry Contan), soldier's service records at the National Archives, Washington, DC.
Parts of this information were first presented by the author at the 14th Annual Conference of the African-American Historical and Genealogical Society, May 1991, at Washington, DC.
Please forward any input, inquiries, comments or complementary research to the author at:
DanaTEsq@earthlink.net
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