John B. Dowd was born on April 8, 1841, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to John and Margaret Dowd. His father earned a living as a drayman, and he died around 1853. Dowd grew up and attended school in Cincinnati, and he moved to Parke County, Indiana, in 1861.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on August 16, 1862, and he mustered in as a sergeant in Company B of the 85^th Indiana Infantry. He eventually earned a promotion to sergeant major. Confederates captured him in March 1863, and he spent two months at Libby Prison. In November 1863, he was promoted to captain of Company H of the 13^th USCT Infantry. He was wounded in the foot in April 1864. Then, in June 1864, he broke his leg in a railroad accident. He spent the following year recovering, and he resigned in April 1865.

 

He settled in Rockville, Indiana, after the war, and he earned a living as a lawyer. In June 1865, he received an appointment as a local postmaster. He applied for a federal pension in July 1865 and eventually secured one. He married Elizabeth Cole on September 22, 1864, and they had at least four children: Ella, born around 1866; Charles, born around 1868; Cora, born around 1870; and Carl, born around 1879. By 1870, he owned $800 of real estate and $300 of personal property.

He supported the Republican Party. He was reappointed as postmaster in 1871 and again in 1877. He moved to Washington, D.C., in the late 1800s, and he worked as a government clerk. His wife died in 1901. In June 1908, he was admitted to the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Hampton, Virginia. He was suffering from “Cardiac dilation” and the “disabling” effects of his “old [leg] fracture.”

 

He left the facility in February 1911. By 1920, he was living in his grandson’s household in Washington, D.C. He died there on March 24, 1923.

 

Image: John B. Dowd (Evening Star, 26 March 1923)

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