Description

Sixth plate ambrotype of a Virginia artillerist with the Stonewall Brigade.  Andrew McGowan enlisted on April 22, 1861 at Covington, VA as a private in Co. A, 27th VA Infantry, the “Allegheny Roughs.”  When the captain who organized the company resigned due to ill health, the captaincy went to First Lieutenant Joseph Hannah Carpenter, who had been a cadet under Stonewall Jackson at VMI.  The company was converted to an artillery battery, and served as the Alleghany Light Artillery, or Carpenter’s Battery.

McGowan was listed as guarding baggage in Winchester, VA on June 30, 1861.  He was wounded in the right arm on November 27, 1863 at Payne’s Farm, and hospitalized at Chimborazo Hospital on December 3, 1863.  He was hospitalized again on February 14, 1864 at Staunton, VA.  He was listed as a POW on September 27, 1864 and confined to Point Lookout, MD on October 12, 1864.  He died of consumption as a POW on February 17, 1865 and is interred at the Point Lookout Confederate Cemetery.  McGowan is wearing what looks like a P. Tait shell jacket.  He is identified by an old typed identification that goes back to the collector who purchased the image from the family.  The image is published in Dom Serrano’s book, “Still More Confederate Faces,” on page 149, and in the Winter 2022 issue of Military Images Magazine.  Housed in a very nice thermoplastic case.