Alexander Hamilton Bowman

Alexander Hamilton Bowman (May 15, 1803 – November 11, 1865) was an engineer, military educator, and career officer in the United States Army. Bowman supervised the erection of Charleston Harbor defenses, including Fort Sumter, and served as Superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, during the American Civil War. Early life Alexander H. Bowman was born on May 15, 1803, at Bowman's Hill in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the sixth child of farmer Samuel Bowman. One of seven brothers who participated in the American Revolutionary War as soldiers in the Continental Army, the elder Bowman and a brother fought at Lexington as two of the village's 48 minutemen and as ensign of the 3rd Massachusetts Regiment of the Continental Line guarded the spy Major John André awaiting his execution in 1780, walking him to the gallows. Samuel Bowman was later promoted to Lieutenant of the 1st Regiment of the Massachusetts Line. One of his brothers was killed at Monmouth, but after 1786 Captain Samuel and several of his siblings moved to the Wyoming Valley of northeast Pennsylvania. Appointed to the United States Military Academy from his native state on June 1, 1821, Bowman proved an excellent student, graduating third in his class of 37, and was appointed to the corps of engineers in 1825. Second Lieutenant Bowman spent one year teaching at the academy as "Assistant Professor of History, Geography, and Ethics." Both Jefferson Davis (Class of 1828) and Robert E. Lee (Class of 1829) attended the academy while Bowman was teaching there. Military career Bowman was engaged engineering improvements on the facilities and defenses of Gulf Coast harbors for nine years. He built the military road between Memphis, Tennessee and Little Rock, Arkansas, then in 1835 Bowman was promoted to First Lieutenant of engineers, and married Marie Louise Colin, a native of Pensacola, Florida. After three years working in the Tennessee and Cumberland River systems, Bowman was again promoted.