James Jones Cowan was born in Warren County Aug 5 1830 to John and Sarah Jones Cowan. He was raised in Warren County with his brothers and sisters in a large family.

He married Maria Louisa Craig in 1850. They would go on to have a large family themselves.

On April 26,1862, James J Cowan enlisted with 1st Ms Lt Arty Withers Regt. as Capt of Company G.

Capt Cowans Battery activity / enlisted April 26 1862 Vicksburg Ms - Apr 1862 -Oct 1862 
Milldale Ms - Nov 1862 
Snyders Bluff Ms - Dec 1862 - Feb 1863
Vicksburg Ms - July 4 1863 - July 27 1863 - Lt Gen   Pemberton surrendered / POW 
Enterprise Ms - Oct 31 1863 - Dec 1863 
Demopolis Al - March 28 1864 
Mobile Al - Apr 15 1864 
Monticello Al - Mar 28 1864 - Capt of Myricks Battery [Should read Montevallo, in Shelby Co.]
Atlanta Ga - Aug 1864
Palmetto Ga - Sep 20 1864 
Mobile Al - Jan 4 1865 
Blakely Al - Apr 9 1865 - Captured / POW 
Ship Island Ms - Apr 28 1865 - POW 
New Orleans La - Apr 30 1865 - POW 
Citronelle Al - May 4 1865 - Commander of CS Army Lt Gen R Taylor surrendered 
Jackson Ms - May 15 1865 - Paroled

Cowans Battery, as it would be called, was very active throughout central Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. Capt. Cowan's "new command included his brother Private Warren F. Cowan, his wife's brother Sergeant Archibald N. Craig, his sister Martha's son Private Joseph T. Hicks, his sister Mary's son Sergeant Granville Hicks, two first cousins, brothers Lieutenant Ludwell B. Cowan and Private Tarlton B. Cowan and Ludwell's wife's four brothers, Privates Charles, Charles H., James, and Richard W. Harris." (Hewitt, Schott, and Kunis, eds., To Succeed or Perish: The Diaries of Sergeant Edmund Trent Eggleston, 1st Mississippi Light Artillery Regiment, CSA, pgs. 97-98)

After the war was over, Capt Cowan would go on to become a successful cotton broker.

While on a trip to Nashville, Tenn, in 1898, he was accidentally struck by a train and died. He was brought home to Warren County and is buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery along with the rest of his family.

 

CSA Soldiers' Rest:

Capt J. J. Cowan was born in the year 1830, in Warren county, Miss., and was one of a family of twelve children. He was first sent to Mississippi college, at Clinton, and afterward completed his education in Cumberland university, of Lebanon, Tenn., which at that tie was a leading institution of learning in that section of the Union. He was married at the early age of twenty years to Miss M. L. Craig, and at once embarked in business in Vicksburg, which was carried on for many years under the well-known firm name of Cowan & Chapin. Commencing with a small capital, he pursued his business so earnestly, so ably and so successfully that upon the outbreak of the war he had accumulated a comfortable fortune. The call for arms met from him a prompt and ready response, and with the enthusiasm, sturdy devotion and disinterested patriotism that inspired Southern hearts, he left his large business interests and raised and equipped a battery of artillery, well known throughout the bloody conflict which followed as Cowan's battery. Attached at first to Colonel Wither's regiment, the only regiment of artillery ever organized in the Confederate service, he was stationed at Haine's bluff to defend Yazoo river. He successfully performed this duty, repulsing the attack of General Sherman's troops, and next took part in the defense of Vicksburg against the Federal fleet. Assigned to General Loring's division, he was in the disastrous battle of Baker's creek, was cut off from that general in the retreat that followed, and entered Vicksburg with the scattered remains of General Pemberton's army. Captain Cowan, with his faithful command, occupied an important position in the line of defense during the ever memorable siege of forty-seven days, and surrendered with the besieged army. The history of the privations that came after the place was invested, the nights of sleepless peril, the days of anxious care, the insufficient, unwholesome food, the life in shelterless trenches exposed to prolonged cannonading or sudden assault, can never be written. The surrender of Vicksburg found Captain Cowan shattered in health, but as soon as his parole expired he reported for duty to Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, and his battery shared in all the glorious conflicts and hard fought battles of the immortal retreat to Atlanta. With unfaltering courage he next followed the intrepid Hood in his ill-fated Tennessee campaign; was in the bloody battles of Franklin and Nashville, and the subsequent terrible retreat. He was transferred to General Maury's command at Blakely for the defense of Mobile, and there his  battery fought stubbornly until the retreat of the infantry left them surrounded by the enemy. This was the last engagement of the war, and, so far as known, Captain Cowan fired the last guns. Enduring all the horrors of prison life on Ship island a dangerous spell of illness, brought on by anxiety of mind and privations of body, proved nearly fatal, when the end of the conflict secured his release. Broken in health, his fortune swept away, Captain Cowan commenced anew the struggle for a competency, and although he met with varied fortunes and had many ups and downs, he continued to persevere, and is now one of the leading and successful business men of Vicksburg. Notwithstanding the hardships he had to endure during the war, he is now in good health, and weighs about two hundred pounds He is a fine looking gentleman, his hair and beard being quite gray; is five feet ten inches in height, and still, in his upright and dignified carriage, shows evidences of his early military life.