Headquarters of the Army,
Adjutant General’s Office,
Washington, January 7, 1870.It is with heartfelt pain and sorrow that the General of the Army
announces to the country and to his fellow soldiers the death of Brevet
Major General Joseph A. Mower who died in New Orleans on the 6th
instant of congestion of the lungs.General Mower began his military career as a private soldier in the
company of engineers that served with marked distinction in the Mexican
War; was first commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 1st Infantry,
June 18, 1855, and was promoted to first lieutenant, March 13, 1857. At
the breaking out of the War of the Rebellion he commanded Company H,1st Infantry, and took part in the siege and capture of New Madrid, and
May 5, 1862, was commissioned as Colonel, 11th Missouri Volunteers, and
took part in the battle of Corinth, October 4, 1862, where he was wounded
severely, and was, for a time, in the hands of the enemy.He first fell under the immediate command of the present General of the
Army in the Vicksburg campaign, and very soon after attracted his notice
by deeds of personal bravery that would require a volume to record. From
that date to the close of the war he was engaged in every campaign in the
west; at Jackson, Vicksburg, Meridian, the Red River, in Missouri, whence
he was called personally to the aid of the General, at Atlanta, and accom-
panied him, rising through all the grades, until the end of the war, when he
commanded the 20th Corp.A better soldier or a braver man never lived than Joseph A. Mower,
and the General can recall many instances when he displayed abilities of the
highest order, entitling him to the full name and fame of a General. Since
the war he has exhibited his soldierly qualities by standing at his post
through pestilence and sickness, never asking a personal favor, and always
sharing cheerfully the exposures of his men.The General, in thus speaking of one to whom he was so strongly
attached, feels certain that this, and more too, is due to one who never
wrote or spoke of himself, and seemed oblivious of all things except to serve
his country with his whole heart and his whole soul.By command of General Sherman:
E. D. Townsend,
Adjutant General.Official:
Assistant Adjutant General.
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