Soldier Biographies
Bryan McDowell was raised as a farm boy in Franklin, Macon County, NC and according to "Historic Names In Tennessee", he attended a Sand Hill College in NC (possibly near Asheville) for three years, beginning at age 20. He then worked in Athens, Georgia in the mercantile business from the fall of 1860 until the Civil War broke out. He then went home to Macon County and joined the 39th NC Infantry as a private in Company B. He served in North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky. He was commissioned and rose in rank to Major in the Sixty-Second Infantry. While in Cumberland Gap on September 13, 1863, his regiment was surrendered by General Frazier. Major McDowell and others thought the surrender was not necessary. He then led many in this regiment and many from the Thirty-seventh Virginia regiment, about 800 men all together, through the Federal lines at night to safety and to fight again. During the war Major McDowell met Miss Margaret Rhea near Bristol, Tennessee. They were married at Bluff City, Tennessee and they had 6 children. Bryan McDowell became a lawyer and practiced law with a firm in Bristol, Tennessee, where he lived for thirty years.
In the book, "Sketches of Prominent Tennesseans", Major Bryan McDowell is reported to be an attorney of the firm of Butler & McDowell, Bristol, TN and was born in Macon County, NC June 22, 1937 where he grew up. He was raised a farmers boy until the age of twenty and then attended Sand Hill College, NC and three years after he went to Athens, Georgia and engaged in the mercantile business, first as a salesman and then as a bookkeeper of Pitner, England and Freeman and remained there from the fall of 1860 until the Civil War broke out. He joined the Southern army as a private in Company B, Thiry-ninth NC infantry and served in NC, TN and KY. By the end of his military career he had been promoted to Major McDowell. Bryan was married at Union Depot (then Zollicoffer), Sullivan County, TN and settled with his wife in Union Depot and was admitted to the bar in March 1866. In the fall of 1879 he formed a partnership with Judge R. R. Butler which he still continued as this article was being written. It is stated that Maj. Byron McDowell was raised a democrat and in religion was raised a Methodist but in 1880 joined the Presbyterian church at Bristol where for twenty years he had been s Sunday School teacher and for four years a Sunday-school superintendent.
It states the McDowell family is of Scotch-Irish origin. The advent of the family into this county was previous to the Revolution and that many of the family participated in the war for independence, some of them were at King's Mountain and some figured in the war of 1812. Major McDowell is a descendant of the fifth remove from General John McDowell. Another McDowell, a kinsman of Maj. McDowell, was a member of Congress from Maryland.
Macon Co., NC in the Civil War
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This page was last updated Friday, 11-Feb-2005 19:57:16 CST.
