Interesting archive of a Civil War Hospital Chaplain
Archive of John Alexander Bowman, Army Chaplain
Virginia and Tennessee: 1841-1890. A collection of over 90 items, largely manuscript material by Bowman produced over the course of his service as Army Chaplain of the Union in military hospitals in Tennessee and Virginia, covering his time as a teacher, then preacher in 1841-1854, and then from his appointment as hospital Chaplain in 1861 to his discharge in 1865, with some material following his discharge and death in around 1890. An itinerant and seemingly peripatetic soul, Bowman (1814-1890?) was born in Chillicothe, Ross County, Ohio. He was ordained as an Episcopal minister in 1853, and according to his own testimony, he was one of the first commissioned Chaplains in the U.S. Army, serving first in the New York 13th Regiment Volunteers. After his health failed in the field, he resigned and entered the Hospital Service, becoming the first Chaplain so commissioned in January, 1862, at Wolfe Street Hospital, Alexandria, Virginia. He later served at Louisville, KY, and Knoxville, TN. Material includes letters to and from Bowman, reports and requests from Bowman to his superiors on the management of the Hospitals under his jurisdiction and their spiritual and moral health, orders, appointments and discharges, forms and pro-forma documents concerning Bowman’s business, clippings, a few speeches and sermons, diaries and account books, and even Bowman’s clerical collar. From these documents we see that Bowman was an active and engaged Chaplain who advocated for the men in his care and did his best to encourage religious fervor. He started his career as an educator, moving westward into Ohio and Illinois in an attempt to find students. Broadsides and clippings show he was lecturing on Islamic history, Turkey, and Phrenology. An 1841 letter from John’s wife indicates that this was not entirely successful. “I am very sorry you should have gone to Indianapolis, now I am going to advise with you a little, you have been away nearly a month and I presume have not cleared more than 20 dollars, I am afraid you will not succeed as you anticipated now I want you to make the best of your way home indeed I cannot spare you any longer, money here is as scarce as ever.” She says she has lost her husband and is mourning him, and that “You have lost your head among the fair damsels of the west.” By 1851 Bowman is back East, in Racine, Pennsylvania, preaching while also running a Bowman Academy with his wife. A broadside advertises his academy as a two-year school educating on the fundamentals. He is also preaching and struggling to support himself through parish work. In his diary he writes, “According to previous notice in two papers, some of our friends gave a ‘donation party’ at our residence… only a few attended or sent anything,” He made $26 at this party. “As for those, who, influenced by my enemies, stayed away, may the Lord have pity on their poor, miserable, stingy souls.” Why he has enemies it isn’t clear, but that same month he complains in his diary of receiving anonymous hate mail. In 1861 he is appointed as army Chaplain of the NY State Volunteers, 13th regiment, and the majority of material is from after this point, concerning his work as Chaplain. Health issues lead to Bowman’s discharge from this post, and he is consequently appointed as the first Army Hospital Chaplain of the Union army. While he appears to have had good relations with most of the soldiers, surgeons, and military leaders he associated with, his letters are largely complaints and requests concerning disrespect to his office, or petitions on behalf of soldiers in his care. He is concerned with excessive swearing and partying, requests assistance in the upkeep of the chapel, protests when soldiers are made to do work on Sunday, and has a serious conflict with Dr. Octerlong, who he says actively obstructs his work as a Chaplain and makes false accusations against him, to the point that Bowman demands his dismissal. He also advocates for the due process of soldiers who are victims of abuse by leadership. In one case a small group of patients are imprisoned without trial by Capt. Adolph von Dachenhausen, who suspected them of breaking his window. Bowman describes the Captain as a violent and unliked man. “It was not for this injustice, oppression, and degradation of our manhood, as freemen, innocent, united and uncondemned that we volunteered to assist in putting down this hellish Rebellion.” Bowman requests that Dachenhausen be court marshalled. This is accompanied by a letter by the Surgeon General to Dachenhausen that none of the complainants had been absent from their beds at the time of the attack, but some guards had stated that they had been abused by the Captain and would just as soon stone him as not. In two similar cases a solder is held without trial for an unreasonable length of time. One item is a copy of a petition from Capt. Samuel Black to President Lincoln, stating that he was disabled in the war and has been held without trial for two months. A note says he was finally released. Bowman also provided regular reports to the surgeon general, in which he gives statistics on the number of services held, funerals presided over, admittances and deaths, and financial and moral health of the hospital. In these reports he also makes suggestions such as oversight for abuse and enforcement of orders to attend church services. In one ten-page report he makes a lengthy protest for the practice at Brown hospital for the surgeons “as a matter of course” to dissect the bodies of soldiers upon death. He says that knowledge that they will be dissected traumatizes and terrifies patients and has a negative effect on their recovery. He recounts attempts to prevent dissection by hiding bodies in the rooms of captains. He also claims that bodies are becoming misidentified in the process, and details an instance where the sister of a killed soldier is lied to about whether or not he was buried, and after demanding entry into the dead house, is convinced “against evidence” that the body there is not her brother. Material about Bowman’s personal life is scarce during this time. A few letters in 1862-63 concern Bowman’s young son, who runs away from home to join the army as a drummer boy. Bowman appears to have made an effort to track down his son, as he receives a letter from a woman who had been caring for him. She says he had been present in a number of battles, had told her that his parents were dead, and would disappear and reappear like a vagrant. She says in the letter she had not seen him for some time, and it’s unclear if was ever found. A few items are from shortly after Bowman’s death, including a typescript letter signed by Henry Ward Beecher to Bowman's wife Elizabeth about domestic matters, accompanied by a carte-de-visite, and a letter between sister Mary and Elizabeth on his passing. Bowman seems to have had some association with Beecher, as there is also a manuscript talk on the subject of Beecher. Also included is a copy of a letter to Mary Todd Lincoln expressing support (“Oh Madam, if you and he could be present in the church hall in my hospital and see over 500 soldiers on their knees Sunday morning … that the high and mighty ruler would bless his servant the President … and hear from the throats of 500 soldiers the loud, and hearty, amen, he would take courage for the great work before him.”) and a two-page manuscript prayer for the success of the Union. All in all, an illuminating collection of material on the activities of a Civil War Hospital Chaplain. Item #59869
Price: $3,500.00
