Mary Lucretia Preston Bowen

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/92200183/mary-lucrecia_preston-...

Mary Lucretia Preston Kennerly was born January 9, 1835, in Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri, to Captain George Hancock Kennerly and wife, Alzire Menard, granddaughter of Pierre Menard, the first Lieutenant Governor of Illinois. Mary married Lt. John Stevens Bowen of Savannah, Georgia at Jefferson Barracks on May 8, 1854.

John became an architect in Carondelet, Missouri, while maintaining his attachment to the Missouri Volunteer Milita. When the Civil War broke out, he sided with the South, and rose rapidly, forming the 1st Missouri Confederate Infantry, C.S.A. Three of Mary's brothers - James, Samuel, and Lewis - served as officers in the regiment. Col. Bowen and his regiment distinguished themselves in the bloody battles of Shiloh and Corinth. With the rank of brigadier-general, Bowen, now considered to be one of the best generals in the service, was stationed in Claiborne County, Mississippi, and was the first to receive the onslaught of Grant's huge federal army in the opening battles of Grand Gulf and Port Gibson in the spring of 1863. Mary fled from the Confederate stronghold of Grand Gulf with her nine-month old baby, John Sidney Bowen, who had been born in neighboring Hinds County the previous fall. Next followed the decisive battles of Champion Hill and the Big Black which drove the outnumbered Confederates into Vicksburg and into siege where Bowen was second in command. Mary was with or near her husband during this time in Mississippi, serving as a battlefield and hospital nurse. Tragically, Gen. Bowen died on July 13, 1863, from disease in Hinds County after being paroled from Vicksburg.

When the war ended, Mary established her own female seminary in Raymond, Mississippi, but the devastated area was able to support the school for only two years. She then returned to Carondelet where she and her children lived with her mother. There she went into journalism, co-editing several publications including "The Central Magazine" and "The South St. Louis." She died at the age of sixty-nine in St. Louis, on Jan. 10, 1904, and was buried at Calvary Cemetery near her mother Alzire and her daughter Anna. In 2008, the Sterling Price Camp #145, Sons of Confederate Veterans, dedicated the grave marker for Mary (Mrs. Gen.) Bowen and Anna Bowen.

Children of General John S. Bowen and Mary Kennerly Bowen:

Menard Kennerly Bowen, President of Chicago Railway Company, b. Sept. 10, 1855 in St. Louis ,d. Apr. 9, 1899, Chicago, buried in Jackson, Tennessee.

Miss Anna "Annie" Beauregard Bowen, b. in St. Louis, May 22, 1860, d. in Philadelphia, Jan. 28, 1940, buried in Cavalry Cemetery, St. Louis.

John Sidney Bowen, b. Edwards, Hinds County, MS, Sept. 6, 1862, d. Sept. 12, 1925, Grassy Creek, Mitchell County, North Carolina.