It was only natural at the breaking out of the war that he should think it right to take up arms for the South. Andrew J. Lowry was among the first of the young men of his native state of Mississippi. He was born on the state line of Mississippi and Alabama. He volunteered as a member of Company I, 14th Mississippi Regiment, under Captain Samuel J. Gholson and was with that regiment until the Battle of Fort Donelson, when the 14th shared the fate of most of the Confederate army was taken prisoners, and sent away to some of the Islands of the Mississippi River, where they remained many months or until near the close of the war. A.J. Lowry, however escaped being made a prisoner, on account of being in the hospital at the time of the surrender, for most of the sick were taken out of the hospital to places of safety, and thus escaped being made prisoners. His Captain Samuel J. Gholson, having lost an arm in the battle, was among those who escaped from the hospital to safety, and afterwards made another company which I believe was called Co. J. and thrown into another Regiment the 43rd, and after participating in the Battle of Iuka, went to Vicksburg, and went through that trying siege, which let them out of the war for good, on account that they were paroled, under oath not to take up arms against the union cause until legally exchanged, which they never were. But the dying confederacy tried hard to make them fight again, by sending cavalry out to compel them into the Confederate service, and succeeded in making some go again, which was certain death to as many as were taken again by Federal soldiers. After being captured once by cavalry and taken to the Confederate camps, my brother and others, succeeded in escaping, and was not molested again. A.J. Lowry caused to be raised the first Union flag that was raised in that part of the country after the Civil War. It was on the following occasion, that it came about: on the 4th of July 1865, there was to be brand dance at Irvin’s Ford, on the Buttehatchie River and my brother caused his oldest sister to make a small union flag to raise there that day. Now you will wonder what had caused him to change mind in regard to the Confederate cause: and it was this: when he had been in the Confederate service a few months, and before he had been in any fights, he was allowed a 30 day furlough: and a cousin of his in another regiment was likewise on a 30 day furlough, they were at our father’s house, and he was always of the opinion that the South would not win, for said he, that Washington had said that “United we stand, but divided we fall”; and my brother and his cousin in John Theodore Lowry, were discussing the situation, and said that it seemed wrong for them to be fighting against the old flag that the fathers had both fought under, and decided then and there, to try to get to the union side while they were on furloughs, and before they expired, which would be in some two weeks later. So they started, none knowing but their own familiar, that is our fathers and J. T.’s mother and his brother, T.J. Lowry, none of us letting best friends know where they had gone. They reached the Confederate outposts near Purdy, Tennessee, and were taken up for deserters, but succeeded in escaping the first night, but becomes separated; John Theodore succeeded in reaching the union lines, but A.J. returned home in time to his own Confederate regiment, the 14th Mississippi Volunteers, and it was never known how near he came being a union soldier; so he returned to the Confederate army, with the result recorded above. But it was on the occasion of the return John Theodore Lowry after the war and my brother met him on the ground, and as stated above he had the little union flag, and gave it to J. Theodore to raise. There were threats made against the perpetrators of that affair, but it amounted to nothing more than the withdrawal of the Confederate sympathizers to another of grounds, and there under the stately groves of trees at Irvin’s Ford the dance went on till night fall when the crowd dispersed to their homes. The Irvin Ford takes its name from those relatives of ours, who lived on either side of Buttehatchie River, near where Gattman, Mississippi, now stands.
(Nancy Emiline Lowry born August 12, 1845 at Quincy, Monroe County, Mississippi.)
N.E.L.
Of the Battle of Fort Donelson, February 15, 1862, Major Doss reported that while his regiment was moving into position Capt. J. L. Crigler, Company G, was severely wounded by a shell. The regiment was ordered to attack a battery in its front, supported by several regiments of Grant's army, which it did gallantly, fighting for an hour until ordered to retire. Capt. F. M. Rogers, Company E, was killed in this engagement. Later in the day the regiment was engaged with a Federal force that had occupied a part of the Confederate entrenchment’s. The casualties were 17 killed, 85 wounded and 10 missing. Upon the surrender of the fort, which followed this fight, the regiment, about 650 in number, became prisoners of war.