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300 Chronicles of the Cape Fear River

Colonel Cowan was a native of Wilmington and was prominent
in the politics of the State. No man was more loved and
admired than he. His gallantry was unequaled, while his
charming personality and graceful manners are well remem-
bered by all who knew him. He was wounded severely at the

last of the Seven Days Battles around Richmond, and being dis-
abled from service, resigned in November, 1862.

Col. John L. Cantwell saw active service in the Mexican
War, in the War between the States, and subsequently in the
Spanish-American War. ‘The records say “that seldom has the
flag of a country waved over a braver soldier.” His service
as colonel of the Thirtieth Regiment, North Carolina Militia,
in taking possession of Forts Caswell and Johnston on April 16,
1861, is told elsewhere. On its organization, April 13, 1862,
Colonel Cantwell was elected colonel of the Fifty-first Regi-
ment, but resigned and enlisted as a private in Company F,
Third Regiment, North Carolina Infantry, Capt. William M.
Parsley, on whose promotion after the Battle of Sharpsburg, he
became captain of the company, and was a most efficient and
gallant officer in that famous regiment. Unfortunately, he was
captured in the “Bloody Angle” at Spottsylvania Courthouse on
May 12, 1864, along with nearly the entire regiment, during the
course of the most terrible engagement of the war. His military
training was manifest throughout his civil life, in which, as
agent of the Adams Express Company, as a produce broker, as
secretary of the Wilmington Produce Exchange, and for many
years secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, he maintained a
careful and sometimes exaggerated regard for official detail.

During the War between the States he kept a diary of im-
portant events in which he, with other Wilmingtonians, was
engaged, and this precious little book, which he carefully

guarded for nearly fifty years and always carried in his pocket,
was a veritable vade mecum, or last resort, on any disputed

point of military history. It contained particularly a careful
record of the names and incidents connected with the Federal
retaliation upon six hundred Confederate officers, including
Colonel Cantwell and Capt. John Cowan, of the Third Infan-
try, Capt. Walter G. MacRae, of the Seventh Infantry, Capt.
T. C. Lewis, of the Eighteenth Infantry, Capt. J. D. McMillan,

The War Between the States 301

H. Bloodworth, of the Fourth Cavalry, from Wilmington, as
well as Capt. G. M. Crapon, of the Third Infantry, and Capt.
H. Earp, of the Twenty-fourth Infantry, from Southport, who,
by Secretary Stanton’s order, were removed from their quarters
in the North as prisoners of war and placed under double cross
fire on Morris Island, exposed to almost certain death.

When Chief Justice Clark was completing the fifth volume
of his most valuable Regimental Histories, he requested me to
persuade Capt. Walter G. MacRae, then mayor of Wilmington,
to write an account of that expedition for his history. This
Captain MacRae consented to do, and when the narrative was
completed, he wisely asked Colonel Cantwell to listen to its
recital in order that its accuracy might be clearly established.
The colonel, who was afflicted with deafness, nodded his approval

until, in describing the incident of the separation of the trans-
port from its armed convoy while off Wrightsville Beach, and

a hurried discussion by the prisoners of a proposed attempt to
escape through the surf and its final rejection because of the

great risk of life involved, Captain MacRae fell into a habit
he has of quoting obscure Bible characters and said that the
counsel of Ahithophel prevailed. Instantly the colonel held up
a restraining hand, and, with the other cupped to his ear, de-
manded to know the name of that man. “Ahithophel” repeated
Captain MacRae. “No, no,” said the colonel, “there was no
such person abroad.” “But let me explain,” said MacRae.
“No explanation can falsify this book,” said the colonel, as he
ran his fingers down the list of the six hundred. “Ahithophel,
Ahithophel! No such person aboard, sir, he was doubtless a
rank impostor”; and failing to make his meaning clear, Captain
MacRae was obliged to delete his quotation from the sacred book
of Samuel.

Colonel Cantwell’s old-time affability and gentle courtesy
won him many friends, but while he was patient and responsive
to polite advances, he was quick to resent a fancied or real
affront. A few years before his death he attended with his
accustomed regularity a prominent church service in a neigh-
boring city. As no usher approached him, he quietly walked
up the centre aisle, looking smilingly from right to left, expect-
ing an invitation to be seated, but, no man regarding him, he
turned back at the chancel rail and walked quietly out. Pres-

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