Joseph Bowman Joseph Bowman ( c . 1752 – c . 14 August 1779 ) was a Virginia militia officer during the American Revolutionary War . He was second - in - command during George Rogers Clark ' s famous campaign to capture the Illinois country , in which Clark and his men seized the British - controlled towns of Kaskaskia , Vincennes , and others . Bowman was injured in an accidental gunpowder explosion after the campaign , and subsequently died of his wounds . He was the only American officer killed during the Illinois campaign . Bowman kept a daily journal during the trek from Kaskaskia to Vincennes , which is one of the best primary accounts of the event . Early life . Bowman was the son of George Bowman and Mary Hite Bowman . His maternal grandfather was Jost Hite , a German immigrant credited as the first European colonist to settle west of the Blue Ridge Mountains . In 1732 , Hite led his extended family , including daughter Mary and her husband George Bowman , to the Shenandoah Valley , near present Winchester , Virginia . Hite distributed land to his family and to other settlers — claims which would later be contested in " Hite v . Fairfax " , a landmark Virginia land case . Joseph Bowman was born at Fort Bowman near what is now Strasburg , Virginia . In 1774 , Bowman served in the Virginia militia during Dunmore ' s War . Other Virginians in the war who would be important in Bowman ' s activities in the next several years included George Rogers Clark and Leonard Helm . Soon after Dunmore ' s War , Bowman moved to Kentucky with other British colonists who were seeking to settle there . He was living in Harrodstown in Kentucky by 1777 . On 11 September 1777 , 37 men from the area gathered at Bowman ' s property to shell corn and were attacked by Indians . One settler was killed and six others were wounded before the attackers were driven off . American Revolution . Bowman and three of his brothers served in the American Revolutionary War . Joseph Bowman is sometimes confused with his brother Colonel John Bowman , a prominent leader of the Kentucky militia during the war . Joseph Bowman served as a Captain during the Illinois campaign and was present at the capture of Fort Gage at Kaskaskia on 4 July 1778 . He then led a combined American and French force to capture Prairie du Rocher , Fort de Chartres and Cahokia , where he remained for a time as commander of the renamed Fort Bowman . When Fort Sackville and Captain Leonard Helm were captured by British Lt - Gov Henry Hamilton in late in 1778 , Captain Bowman marched with Colonel Clark in February 1779 across to lay siege to the British forces at Vincennes . He also participated in the negotiations for their surrender . The American flag was raised in the renamed Fort Patrick Henry on 24 February 1779 . In celebration , thereafter , a six - pound cannon was fired on 25 February . Some nearby cannon cartridges ignited , wounding Captain Bowman , Captain Worthington , four privates , and a British soldier . Within days , a dispatch from the Governor of Virginia arrived , with commissions promoting Clark to general , and Bowman to major . For his services rendered , Major Bowman was granted a total of in land north of the Ohio River known as " Clark ' s Grant . " Oddly enough , Clark makes no mention of the cannon accident in his memoir . However , he does describe Major Bowman leading soldiers as late as June 1779 . Major Joseph Bowman ' s health deteriorated , and he died at Fort Patrick Henry on 14 August 1779 . The last page of his journal is blank , except for an anonymous notation : " God save the commonwealth , this 15th day of August , 1779 . " A bronze grave marker with the date of 18 August was later placed in the St . Francis Xavier cemetery , adjacent to the George Rogers Clark National Historical Park , though he was buried somewhere along the Wabash River .