Andrew Cowan ( soldier ) Andrew Cowan served as a Union artillerist in the American Civil War . He distinguished himself at the Battle of Gettysburg and the Battle of Sayler ' s Creek . Pre - War . Andrew Cowan was born in Ayrshire , Scotland on September 29 , 1841 , and he migrated to the United States as a boy . He married his first wife , Mary Asdit , in upper New York State where she bore a son , Albert Andrew Cowan , in August 1867 but she died the following month most likely from complications from childbirth . Civil War Service . Andrew Cowan had seen service in Virginia before becoming an officer in an independent battery . The 1st New York Battery was recruited by Capt Terance J . Kennedy , mostly in Cayuga County , beginning on October 18 , 1861 . The battery was organized at Auburn , New York . Andrew Cowan was commissioned as the unit ' s first lieutenant . The battery was mustered into the service as a volunteer unit for a term of three years on November 23 . The battery left for the Washington , D . C . , arriving on December 4 . Officially designated the 1st New York Battery three days later , it was assigned to BG William F . Smith ' s division of the Army of the Potomac in January 1862 . The division joined IV Corps in March of , 1862 . The division joined VI Corps in May 1862 , serving in the Peninsula Campaign . By that time , Lt Cowan was in charge . He was promoted to the rank of captain during the Peninsula Campaign . The 1st New York Battery served at the Battle of Yorktown and the Battle of Williamsburg under the division ’ s senior artillerist Capt Romeyn B . Ayres . It took part in Seven Days Battles , the Battle of South Mountain at Crampton ’ s Gap , the Battle of Antietam and the Battle of Fredericksburg . In the Chancellorsville Campaign , the battery served in the Second Battle of Fredericksburg , covering the crossing of VI Corps into the town of Fredericksburg . It then supported the division of BG Albion Howe at the Battle of Salem Church . The battery was assigned to the Artillery Brigade of VI Corps in May 1863 . In that arrangement it served in the Battle of Gettysburg . In reserve at first , on July 3 , 1863 it was placed just south of the copse of trees on Cemetery Ridge , in time to resist Pickett ' s Charge . Cowan ’ s guns filled a gap in the infantry line left when a regiment left the front . Cowan ordered his men to fire double canister on a group of Confederates trying to penetrate the federal line , and their fire broke up that threat . BG Henry J . Hunt , the army ’ s chief of artillery , was present with then and had his horse shot out from under him . A newspaper account reported that Capt Cowan served in a gun crew at the height of the assault . A monument to the battery , executed by J . G . Hamilton , stands on the sight of this action . In the autumn of 1863 , the battery served in the Bristoe Campaign , especially the Battle of Rappahannock Station , and in the Mine Run Campaign . The battery served in the VI Corps Artillery Brigade in the Overland Campaign and in the earliest stage of the Siege of Petersburg . Then it served with the Army of the Shenandoah of MG Philip Sheridan from October 1864 . In Sheridan ’ s portion of the Valley Campaigns of 1864 , Cowan was wounded at the Third Battle of Winchester . His battery saw particularly hard service at the Battle of Cedar Creek . After serving briefly in XXII Corps from December 1864 until it rejoined the Army of the Potomac on January 25 , 1865 . Men at the expiration of their term of service were given the chance to be discharged , but most reenlisted permitting the battery to continue in service . In the Army of the Potomac , Capt Cowan , who had received the brevet rank of major , took command of the Artillery Brigade when Col Charles H . Tompkins was assigned to other duties . Cowan was in charge of the VI Corps guns during the Appomattox Campaign . At Sayler ’ s Creek on April 6 , 1865 , Cowan had gathered 20 guns near the Hillsman House . They opened fire at about 5 : 15 PM , experiencing no counter battery fire from the Confederates , because their guns had not accompanied the infantry . Two divisions of VI Corps attacked the Confederate rear guard under Ltg Richard S . Ewell at about 6 : 00 PM . Ewell ' s men attacked the VI Corps divisions as they crossed the stream . The federals were thrown back . However , Cowan ' s guns stopped the southern advance , allowing the infantry to reform and counterattack . The Confederate line was hit in the front by VI Corps and in the flank by federal cavalry . It collapsed , and Ewell was among the southerners captured on the field . After Robert E . Lee ’ s surrender , the battery returned home . It was honorably discharged and mustered out June 23 , 1865 at Syracuse , New York . The 1st New York Battery lost 1 officer and 12 enlisted men killed . 1 officer and 6 enlisted men died of wounds . Another 38 enlisted men died of disease or other causes . Andrew Cowan left the volunteer services as a brevet lieutenant colonel , this promotion dated April 9 , 1865 . Post war . After the war , Andrew Cowan married his second wife , Anna Gilbert in New York state in 1876 and on October 24 , 1876 she bore a son , Gilbert S . Cowan in Louisville , Kentucky , where he had by then settled . He became a leather merchant and after a less than cordial welcome he eventually became locally prominent . His company sold retail . He also served on company boards , headed a printing company for the blind and was a park commissioner . Cowan also served on the committee that raised funds for the erection of the Statue of Liberty as the city ’ s representative . In 1900 , he was a member of a Kentucky delegation that visited the White House to discuss problems in the state with President William McKinley . Cowan also was active in veterans ’ affairs . On July 3 , 1887 , Col Cowan took a leading part in the dedication of the monument to his battery in Gettysburg . He also gave to veteran ’ s of MG George Pickett ’ s division , the Pickett Division association , a sword that had fallen into his hands at the Battle of Gettysburg . On September 9 , 1895 , Cowan gave a banquet for delegates to a convention of the Grand Army of the Republic . Cowan was close with Confederate survivors in Kentucky , who named him an honorary member of their Orphan Brigade in 1912 . In 1915 , the colonel was the father of a proposal to hold a Confederate reunion in Washington . Later than year , he gave an address at the dedicate of a statue of BG Alexander S . Webb , who had commanded the Philadelphia Brigade at Gettysburg , in the Gettysburg National Military Park . When the Confederate reunion was held in 1917 , Col Cowan and President Woodrow Wilson were among the participants . Cowan presented an American flag that was hung beside the Confederate banner Col Cowan also served a term as president of the Society of the Army of the Potomac . Andrew Cowan died in Louisville on August 23 , 1919 at the age of 78 .