John Douglas Fowler was born on July 18, 1830, in Virginia, to William S. Fowler and Ann Fowler. His father was a lock keeper who owned $200 of personal property in 1860. Fowler moved to Uniontown, Alabama, along with his brother Theophilus sometime before 1857. He worked as a brick mason, and he helped construct the Methodist church in Uniontown in 1857. Fowler enlisted in the Confederate army on April 25, 1861, and mustered in as a private in Company D of the 4^th Alabama Infantry on May 7. He was severely injured at the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861, and army officials sent him to Rapidan Station, Virginia, to recover. He was discharged on October 13, 1861. He became a 2^nd lieutenant in the Confederate Marine Corps, and he reportedly took part in the Battle of Hampton Roads in March 1862. By May 1862, he was helping recruit Confederate soldiers in Norfolk, Virginia. He died in Richmond in 1863.

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