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Major R. C. Crowell

ROBERT CODDINGTON CROWELL, late Major of the 26th Missouri Volunteer infantry is a descendant of the Scotch Presbyterians whose ancestors formed a part of one of the first New Jersey colonies, and were active and loyal soldiers of our Revolution, and of the War of 1812.

He was born January 11th, 1832, in New York City, educated in the common schools of New York and New Jersey, moved to St. Louis, Mo., in June 1847, and while there worked as an errand boy and clerk in various lines of trade. Attending the St Louis Commercial College at night and during the day, when not otherwise employed, until April 1850, when he joined a small party of young, men crossing the plains to California, where he remained with varying fortunes until January, 1852, at this date he returned to the Atlantic Coast and proceeded to learn the trade of a shipwright. In June 1856, he again journeyed westward to St. Louis, and was immediately employed in various capacities by Eades & Nelson, Wrecking and Salvage Co., raising sunken steamboats along all the western rivers from north to south, when his health being impaired in this arduous service, he entered the mercantile business on his own account in Calaway County, Missouri. He moved in 1859, to Osage County at St. Aubert Station, Missouri Pacific Railroad,

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remaining there until the beginning of actual war, when he enlisted as a private in Co. K, 26th Missouri Volunteer Infantry. When this regiment was filled by consolidation of three skeleton commands at Pacific, Mo., January, 1862, he was commissioned 1st Lieutenant of Co. K in May, 1862. On the resignation of Capt. Ruckel, of Co. E, Lieut. Crowell was promoted to Captain of that company, and as Co. K was not filled to quota required by law, it was disbanded and the men transferred to other companies of the regiment.

At this time Co. E was wanting in drill and discipline, and Capt. Crowell was ordered by Col. Boomer to " make soldiers out of them," which he at once proceeded to do to the best of his ability, and in a very short time Company E was behind no other company in either drill or discipline and this with their pluck was manifested in their first bitter battle at Iuka, Miss., September 19, 1862, where they held their ground and emptied their cartridge boxes on the enemy until ordered to the rear to replenish ammunition, having held the right section of the 11th Ohio Battery until that moment and were relieved by a portion of the Eleventh Missouri Volunteer Infantry. Capt. Crowell was there wounded in the left shoulder and still carries the rebel lead.

The records show that Company E lost more men, killed and wounded, than any other company of like numbers engaged on the field. After forty days’ absence in hospital Capt. Crowell rejoined his command and was immediately ordered to report at brigade headquarters as acting Assistant Adjutant General of 3^rd Brigade, 7^th division, 17^th Army Corps, under General Boomer as Brigade Commander. He remained in this capacity until May 16^th, 1863, when on the death of Major Brown, at battle of Champion

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Hills, Miss., he was promoted to be Major, serving with his regiment through the Vicksburg and Atlanta campaigns until he was ordered from the front to Chattanooga as Provost Marshal of the District of the Etowah, and there remained until ordered to Nashville, Tenn., where he was mustered out of the service in January, 1865. Major Crowell afterward returned to Missouri where he has since resided at Kansas City