Walter Bowie; Rebel, Ranger, Spy
by Earl B. Eisenhart
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Summary: In a tidy family plot in the cemetery of Bowie Marylands Holy Trinity Episcopal Church stands the gravestone of a notorious Confederate war hero. A nearby gap in the cemetery fence serves as a neighborhood shortcut. It is likely that few of the passersby, walking only steps from the stone marker, are aware of the extraordinary tale of Walter Bowie.
In a tidy family plot in the cemetery of Bowie Marylands Holy Trinity Episcopal Church stands the gravestone of a notorious Confederate war hero. A nearby gap in the cemetery fence serves as a neighborhood shortcut. It is likely that few of the passersby, walking only steps from the stone marker, are aware of the extraordinary tale of Walter Bowie.
Scion of Prince Georges County
Walter Bowie was born in 1838, the son of respected local plantation owner
and lawyer Walter William Weems Bowie. His mother was Adeline Snowden
Bowie, of another prominent local clan. Wat, as his family called him,
grew up at Eglington, the family estate. The property lies just east of
what is now the Bowie Baysox baseball stadium.
A lawyer himself, with a practice in Upper Marlboro, Wat Bowie was tall,
handsome and an accomplished horseman. He wore a heavy, drooping mustache.
He was 23 years old when the Civil War broke out in 1861.
A vigorous young man of strong convictions, Walter was quick to embrace
the Southern cause. Sympathy for the South was strong in the Prince Georges
County of 1861. PG County in those days was part and parcel of the South.
Large plantations dominated the landscape and more than half the residents
were slaves. Walters father was among the countys largest
slave owners. Young Wat is known to have owned at least one slave in his
own right, a Negro woman Betty, probably a nurse maid, who
was willed to him by his great-grandmother, Mary Weems, when he was three
years old.
Going South
There is no question of where the white aristocrats of the county stood
on the consuming issue of the day. In the presidential election of 1860,
a grand total of one vote was counted for Abraham Lincoln. When it became
clear that the Maryland legislature would not move to join the new Confederacy,
a number of young men decided to go south. Walter was among
them.
What set Walter apart was his connection to the countys most prominent
family. For the most part, the Bowies and their neighbors, while very
much sympathetic to the South, did not want Maryland to secede. They knew
that the states economic future depended on the North and had no
desire to see their plantations become bloody battlefields. Most chose
to follow the lead of the familys great statesman, Oden Bowie, who
would later serve as governor. Oden, a 2nd cousin of Walter, took the
position that states should be allowed to secede if they wished, but Maryland
should stay with the union.
Walter was impatient with his elders prevarications. As soon as
war erupted, he headed for Richmond.
There he was granted a commission as a captain in the Confederate Provisional
Army, but was not assigned to any command. The commission, it turns out,
was cover for a different role a spy in the Confederate Secret
Service.
Walter would soon prove a daring, some would say reckless, and highly
valued operative. His knowledge of the areas around Washington and connections
to southern sympathizers so close to the capitol made him especially useful.
During the first two years of the war he undertook numerous missions carrying
dispatches and other information through Southern Maryland to and from
Confederate operatives. He also recruited new soldiers to the cause.
Eluding the Yankees
Several of Wats missions nearly ended in disaster. On October 14,
1862, Bowie was arrested by Union detectives while recruiting in the Woodville
area of lower Prince Georges. He was charged with espionage and hauled
off to the Old Capitol Prison in Washington.
He wasnt there for long. Although the details are a bit sketchy,
it appears that friends of the Bowie family managed to bribe the prison
guards, and Walter and a friend, C.F. Ford, escaped together
on November 17.
Less than a year later, on May 20, 1863, Walter and a colleague, Charles
Hume, were captured again. This time while surreptitiously crossing the
lower Potomac from Charles County to Virginia. Unbeknownst to their captors,
the spies were carrying stolen fortification plans for Washington DC.
The two were taken under guard toward the Union fort at Point Lookout.
Unwilling to spend the rest of the war behind bars, or be hanged for treason,
Walter grabbed a gun from one of the guards and shot and killed him. Hume
was killed in the ensuing hail of gunfire, while Walter somehow managed
to escape unharmed.
By this time Walter was quite notorious, and the Union army, aided by
detectives from Washington, was determined to hunt him down. Agents swarmed
the Southern Maryland countryside.
A Visit to the Warings
Exhausted and hungry, Walter turned up on May 23rd at Bald Eagle,
the plantation home of a distant relative, John Henry Waring, near Upper
Marlboro. John Waring was away on business and his wife, Julia Worthington
Waring, was not pleased to see Walter. She pleaded with him to leave immediately,
saying it was too dangerous and you are tracked everywhere.
She had reason to be alarmed. As it turned out, her 17-year old son Billy
was secretly home on leave from a Confederate cavalry unit. She knew if
the Yankees found Walter at Bald Eagle, Billy would be arrested too. Walter,
who could be quite charming when he wanted to, told Mrs. Waring not to
worry; he was certain he had eluded the union troops.
Late that night however, the household was awakened by a pounding on the
door. Union soldiers had surrounded the house. Mrs. Waring tried to delay
the captain and his men at the front door, to give Walter and Billy time
to escape. Billy would have none of it, proudly donned his uniform, and
presented himself for arrest.
Meanwhile, Walter hid in the kitchen. As the Federals searched the bedrooms,
Billys older sister, Elizabeth Margaret Waring Duckett, took some
soot from a tub, grabbed a dress and kerchief and helped Walter disguise
himself as a female slave. Walter gave Elizabeth the papers he was carrying
and walked out the kitchen door right under the noses of the Union troops.
He hopped on a horse and fled into the woods.
The Warings were not so fortunate. Realizing that Walter had escaped,
the soldiers locked up Mrs. Waring and her four daughters in one of the
bedrooms. While the soldiers were otherwise occupied, the women burned
Walters fortification plans in the fireplace.
The soldiers left the next day taking with them John Waring who had returned
during the night to find his home in chaos. He was arrested along with
Billy, and three of his daughters, and carried off to prison in Washington.
(Mrs. Waring and her youngest daughter Julia were permitted to stay at
the house, although they were later exiled to Virginia.)
No sooner had the soldiers left Bald Eagle with their prisoners, than
Bowie appeared back at the house from his evening spent hiding in the
woods. According to the eyewitness account of Julia Waring, Walter
jumped up on the terrace by the greenhouse and began dancing. He was still
black and dressed in Peggys red calico dress and her bandanna on
his head. We were all too full of sorrow to join in his merriment, although
we were very glad he had escaped. He came in and washed and [left the
house] and I really never saw him again.
While Walter Bowie left the Warings lives in shambles, his wartime
saga was far from over. He once again managed to sneak past the Union
troops who were hunting for him and made his way back to Virginia.
Serving Under Mosby
Wat Bowie had a price on his head. He was by now far too notorious to
work undercover as a spy. What to do? He decided to put his horsemanship
skills to good use. Undoubtedly using family connections, he approached
the now infamous Confederate cavalryman John S. Mosby, commander of the
forty-third Battalion of Virginia cavalry, better known as Mosbys
Rangers.
Mosby signed him up as a lieutenant and before long he distinguished himself
as Mosbys eyes and ears on forays into the Maryland countryside.
Ever resourceful and energetic, Walter was soon organizing southern sympathizers
in Montgomery County to harass Union soldiers, steal horses and supplies,
and find new recruits. He relied upon the help of friendly locals for
places to rest and hide from Union soldiers.
Among the safe houses he used was the Rose Hill home of William
Canaby, near Cloverly. In June 1864, two of Wats recruits were captured
by Union troops. Succumbing to interrogation, they revealed that Canaby
had harbored Wat and his men. Troops were sent to arrest Canaby and he
was promptly dispatched to prison at Ft. Delaware.
Kidnapping the Governor: A Plan Gone Awry
Walter was desperate to find a way to get Canaby, John Waring (who was
also now interred at Ft. Delaware) and others released from Yankee captivity.
He came up with a truly audacious scheme.
Walter decided he would kidnap the governor of Maryland, Augustus Bradford,
and hold him as ransom for his friends. He managed to persuade Colonel
Mosby to loan him several battle-hardened rangers for the mission. Bowie
and his contingent rode from Upperville Va. to a crossing near Mathias
Point in King George County.
There they encountered a problem. There were no boats there to ferry his
men and their horses across the river. Bowie slipped across the river
under darkness to case things out. There he discovered that a contingent
of the 8th Illinois Calvary was stationed at the courthouse in nearby
Port Tobacco. The next night he and seven of his most reliable rangers
snuck across the river and spent an evening drinking with blockade-runners
and assorted riffraff at Brawners Hotel. Sometime after midnight,
Bowie and his men slipped over to the courthouse, quickly subdued the
snoozing soldiers, snatched their horses and disappeared into the night.
The rangers rode fast until daybreak and then sought refuge from prowling
Yankee troops. According to one account, they hid out at the home of Dr.
Samual A. Mudd, a known sympathizer who would later see infamy as the
man who set John Wilkes Booths broken leg.
By early morning the next day, Bowie and his men arrived at Eglington
unscathed. They stocked up on provisions and rested briefly. Wats
brother Brune, who had been wounded in the Confederate army, and was apparently
home on French leave, was added to the raiders party.
Not wishing to shine unwanted attention on the family estate, the group
did not stay overnight, but bivouacked near Hardestys store near
the intersection of Annapolis Road and Church Road.
>From there, Bowie traveled by back roads to Annapolis and somehow
managed to get close enough to Bradford to discover, not surprisingly,
that he was too heavily guarded to be kidnapped. Forced to abandon their
mission, Walter and his men headed back to Virginia. Deciding the way
they had come was too risky, they headed west with the intent of crossing
the Potomac near Rockville.
A Swarm of Angry Quakers
Wat and his men decided to requisition what they could as
they made their way through the Maryland countryside. Their route toward
Whites Ford and back to Virginia took them near the small town of
Sandy Spring. On the evening of October 6th they determined to pay a late-night
visit to the Bently and Gilpin General Store. Quakers owned the store
and the Rangers expected little resistance or trouble. This turned out
to be a miscalculation.
The good people of Sandy Spring were fed up with the constant raids and
scavenging conducted by troops and partisans on both sides. (Just two
months earlier, remnants of Confederate General Jubal Earlys cavalry
had stormed through the area in an abortive march on Washington.) At this
point, even Quakers had taken up arms to protect their property.
So it was that while the raiders easily overwhelmed the shop owners who
lived next door to the store, they soon found themselves pursued by a
group of local citizens, Quakers included. The townsfolk also sent word
to Rockville to alert the Union garrison.
The posse of about 15 citizens caught up with Bowie and his men on the
morning of October 7 about three miles north of Rockville, where they
had stopped to rest and graze their horses.
Fighting to the Last
Bowie saw his pursuers advancing through the trees. Ever brazen, he straddled
his horse, took reins in hand and attacked them head-on. Riding at a gallop,
he was slammed off his horse by a shotgun blast to the face; the blow
delivered by a local carriage maker named William Ent who had taken refuge
behind a tree. Bowie was the only casualty of what became known locally
as the Battle of Ricketts Run.
(The site of the skirmish may be found off Somerville Road near the Metro
tracks, next to the McDonalds.)
The remaining rangers drove off the citizen-posse and removed their injured
leader to a nearby farmhouse. Brune stayed with his brother while the
other raiders hightailed it back to Virginia. Walter Bowie died shortly
thereafter.
Brune was captured by union troops and a detachment was sent in pursuit
of the other raiders, but they escaped over the Potomac near the mouth
of the Monocacy.
(The Quakers involved in the incident were brought before a church counsel
and charged with impudence for their un-Quaker like actions,
but were allowed to remain in the church.)
Going Home
Wats body was returned to Eglington on October 8. He was laid to
rest at Willow Grove, a family property directly across Annapolis Road
from Holy Trinity Church. Bowies mother Adeline was so distraught
she never uttered another word. She died three months later.
In recent years, Bowies remains, and those of his immediate family
were removed from their resting place at Willow Grove to make way for
a housing development. They were re-interred at a plot in the shade near
the rear of the Holy Trinity cemetery. There to remain undisturbed and
unnoticed 140 years after Walter Bowies fateful last adventure.
Sources:
Appointment in Samara -- The Strange Death of Walter Bowie
James O. Hall
North and South (periodical), February 1998
Prince Georges County: Over 300 years of History
PG County Tricentennial Commission, 1996
Marylanders in the Confederacy
Daniel D. Hartzler
Willow Bend Books, 1986
Across the Years in Prince Georges County
Effie Gwynn Bowie
Garrett and Massie, 1947
Civil War Touches Home
Sandy Springs (MD) Museum, undated
The Bowies and Their Kindred
Walter W. Bowie
Cromwell Bros., 1899
A Guide to Civil War Sites in Maryland Blue and Gray in a Border
State
Susan Cooke Soderberg
White Mane Books, 1998
Leave Matter of Mudd's Guilt or Innocence to Historians
James O. Hall
Letter to the Editor
The Maryland Independent, August 1, 1997
The Conspiracy Trial for the Murder of the President
Ben Perley Poore
Arno Press, 1972
Dr. Mudd And The "Colored" Witnesses
Edward Steers Jr.
Civil War History (periodical), December 2000
Come Retribution
William A. Tidwell, James O. Hall, and David W. Gaddy
University of Mississippi Press, 1988
Will of Mary Hall Weems (1840)
Prince Georges County Will Book PC #1 F 384
Maryland State Archives
© 2007 Earl Eisenhart
Ellicott City MD
eeisenhart@grservices.com