Emmer Bowen

Emmer Bowen: Union Soldier and Vicksburg Medal of Honor Recipient

Emmer Bowen was born on October 25, 1830, in Erie County, New York, according to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. Some secondary pages repeat an October 10 birth date, but the Society’s recipient record gives October 25, which I would treat as the stronger date unless a birth or family record proves otherwise.

By the time of the Civil War, Bowen was living in northern Illinois. He enlisted as a private in Company C, 127th Illinois Infantry, a regiment raised in the summer of 1862 under President Lincoln’s call for more volunteers. The Illinois Adjutant General’s regimental history says Company C was recruited at Elgin, while the Company C roster lists Bowen as from Hampshire, Illinois, with an enlistment date of September 5, 1862.

The 127th Illinois was mustered at Camp Douglas, Chicago, on September 6, 1862. Its early service took it from Chicago to Cairo and then Memphis, placing it in the Army of the Tennessee. By late December 1862, the regiment was part of Sherman’s expedition against Vicksburg and saw hard service at Chickasaw Bayou, followed by the capture of Arkansas Post in January 1863. The Illinois history notes that disease hit the regiment badly during the months opposite Vicksburg, at times leaving “scarce a hundred men for duty.”

Bowen’s defining moment came on May 22, 1863, during the Union assault on the fortified Confederate lines at Vicksburg, Mississippi. The 127th Illinois took part in the bloody assaults of May 19 and May 22; the regimental history records about 15 killed and 60 wounded in those two engagements. Bowen was one of the men associated with the famous “volunteer storming party,” sometimes called the Forlorn Hope, which went forward ahead of the main assault to try to cross defensive ditches and help open the way against the Confederate works.

For his conduct that day, Bowen received the Medal of Honor. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society identifies him as a private, Company C, 127th Illinois Infantry, and gives his action place as Vicksburg on May 22, 1863. His citation reads: “Gallantry in the charge of the ‘volunteer storming party.’” The National Park Service’s Vicksburg Medal of Honor list also places Bowen among the Vicksburg recipients and uses the same citation wording.

After the Vicksburg campaign, Bowen’s service appears to have shifted away from front-line infantry duty. The Company C roster records that he was transferred to the Invalid Corps on January 10, 1865. The Invalid Corps, later renamed the Veteran Reserve Corps, was used for soldiers who were no longer fit for the full strain of field service but could still perform useful military duties; the National Archives notes that the Invalid Corps was renamed the Veteran Reserve Corps on March 18, 1864.

Bowen survived the war and lived nearly half a century afterward. He died on December 26, 1912, at age 82. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society lists his burial at Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles, California, with grave location 6-480-1SE.

Bowen’s surviving record is spare: there is no widely available personal diary, obituary, or detailed first-person account tied to him in the sources I found. But the military record places him in one of the Civil War’s most desperate assaults. He was an ordinary enlisted volunteer from Illinois who stepped into an extraordinary moment at Vicksburg, and his Medal of Honor preserves that single act of courage: gallantry in the charge of the volunteer storming party.

Concise bio version

Emmer Bowen was a Union Army private and Medal of Honor recipient from Company C, 127th Illinois Infantry. Born in Erie County, New York, on October 25, 1830, Bowen later lived in Hampshire, Illinois, and enlisted in 1862 as the Civil War expanded across the Mississippi Valley. His regiment served in the Army of the Tennessee and endured disease, fatigue duty, and combat during the campaign against Vicksburg.

On May 22, 1863, Bowen took part in the Union assault on Vicksburg’s Confederate defenses as part of the volunteer storming party. For his bravery in that attack, he received the Medal of Honor with the citation: “Gallantry in the charge of the ‘volunteer storming party.’” After later transfer to the Invalid Corps, Bowen survived the war and eventually settled in California. He died on December 26, 1912, and is buried at Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles.