Re: Robert Jane Bowie Ancestory
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Re: Robert Jane Bowie Ancestory
Al Cook 12/03/98
Roberta J. Bowie was my great grandmother.She married William Jackson Aylor of Madison County Virginia shortly after the Civil War.Their youngest child was my grandfather, John W. Aylor (born September 11, 1890) who was residing in Roanoke, Virginia at the time of his death in 1983.
I don't know a great deal about her but can give you more regarding the Aylor family.Following is an article regarding W. J. Aylor and his service in the Civil War.
W. J. Aylor, the subject of this sketch, was born in Madison County, Virginia, on the 11th day of April 1841 and lived near the famous old Peola Mills of the county up until his twenty-first birthday.On this day, April 11th, 1862, he went to Orange Court House and volunteered his services as a soldier in the Army of the Confederacy becoming a member of Company “G” 7th Virginia Infantry, Kemper’s Brigade, Pickett’s Division.His company commander was Captain Andrew Bolen.He served continuously with this command for the next three years, until he was captured in the fighting at Five Forks, on April 1st, 1865, just nine days before the surrender at Appomattox.
From the first this young soldier was in the midst of the fighting, and during his term of service as a soldier of the “Lost Cause”, he was in elevenimportant battles and several skirmishes of minor importance.He was wounded only once and then very slightly, seeming to have borne a charmed life in the midst of the dangers which constantly surrounded him.The first battle in which he was engaged was that of Williamsburg, soon after his enlistment, when the Confederate forces held the enemy back until retreat from the range of Union gunboats, which were lying in the river at this point, could be assured.
At the Battle of Seven Pines, near Richmond, charging with his regiment he captured a sword and pistol of very fine make from one of the enemy officers.A young lieutenant of Company “G” being without sword, Mr. Aylor presented this weapon to him, but retained the pistol for himself, placing it in the hands of a friend from whom he obtained it after the close ofthe war.
In the Battle of Caines Hill he was under fire all day but his regiment being held in reserve, did not take an active part in the fight.The Confederates here captured the Union lines and took a large number of prisoners.
At the Battle of Frasier’s Farm he was in the thickest of the fighting and narrowly escaped being captured, and thinks that the entire regiment would have been captured, had the enemy been able to “hold their ground”, which very fortunately for this and other Confederate soldiers, they could not do.He did not take part in the Battle of Melvern Hill on the following day, as the 7th Virginia Infantry was being held in reserve, but on the day after that he had the painful duty that falls to many surviving soldiers after a battle, being detailed to help bury his comrades who had fallen.
He took part in the Second Barttle of Manassas, which was raging when his division reached the field, bringing the needed support to the Confederate side, and entered the engagement at a spot near the famous Henry House.After this battle his regiment marched from Manassas to Leesburg, and crossing the Potomac River at a point not far from that place, went to Frederick, Maryland.
The next battle was at South Mountain, where his command fought to hold back the Union troops until General Stonewall Jackson could capture Harpers Ferry, and then fall back to Sharpsburg, where one of the bloodiest battles of the whole war was fought several days afterwards at Antietam.After this battle the Confederate forces moved south, crossing the Potomac River at Williamsport, and came back to Virginia.
He records the Battle of Marye’s Heights at Fredericksburg in December 1862 as one of the warmest fights of his experience, but says that on this occasion the Confederates had the advantage in position on the heights and the slight protection afforded by some stone walls.And that, “the day after the fight the Union forces went back on the north side of the river, where they seemed better satisfied”.
His command was not in the fighting in the Wilderness near Fredericksburg in the following spring, having been sent to Pymouth, North Carolina, where they captured the town on the evening before the battle, and took the fort.Mr. Aylor and his cousin, John Aylor, were the first two men to enter the fort.With six thousand prisoners the command marched out with “fixed baynets”, the special reason for the fixed bayonets being that every hungry Confederate soldier had a ham of bacon thereon.At this battle, Mr. Aylor captured a breech-loading carbine, which he carried the rest of the war.
The next battle in which he was engaged was that of Gettysburg, aptly termed as the turning point of the fortunes of the South.On the first day of the three days’ Battle of Gettysburg his regiment was at Chambersburg, engaged in tearing up a railroad to prevent enemy communication with the North.The second day his division marched to Gettysburg and went into camp.On the morining of the third day he took part in the battle, being in that immortal “Charge of Pickett’s Division”, which for sheer heroism and daring will be remembered as long as history is written.
Mr. Aylor went into this charge with sixty rounds of ammunition and says that he fired his carbine until it got so hot that his hands were literally blistered.The next day he was detailed to guard prisoners back to the Potomac River where they were turned over to other guards.
He was also in the Battle of Drewery’s Bluff, near Richmond, where the entire regiment had orders to bivouac on it’s arms, so as to get up at three o’clock and charge the enemy at daybreak.This order was strictly carried out and the Union lines of battle taken.
At Five Forks, the 7th Virginia Infantry had made a number of charges on the enemy cavalry lines, and finally drove them back to the support of their infantry.But on the following morning the Union forces overpowered them, broke their line, andthe 7th regiment was driven back and many of its men captured, among them was Mr. Aylor.With a number of other prisoners he was sent to the military prison at Point Lookout, Maryland where he suffered from poor and insufficient food and from the cruelty of the Negro guards.He was kept in prison for sometime after the surrender at Appomattox, but was finally released and returned to his old home in Madison County.
During his term of service in the Army of the Confederacy he was absent from his command only twenty-three days in three years, and was never sick enough to require the attention of a doctor.In January 1865, while on a short furlough, he found an acquaintance who had left the army and persuaded him to return to his company.He states humorously, that on his return to camp, he was loaded down with “eatables and drinkables” which he shared with his friends, that the officers were very near writing him another furlough, especially after sampling some of Madison’s Peach and Honey.
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The Star is indebted to J. R. Bowie of Elisabethton, Tennessee for the above facts regarding the war record of William Jackson Aylor, and Mr. Bowie adds the following tributeto the character of this above ex-Confererate, which we take pleasure in quoting: “Sometime after the war he was united in marriage with Miss Roberta Bowie, with which he has enjoyed a long and happy married life.This venerable couple live now in Franklin County, not far from Roanoke, one of their sons, John W. Aylor, making his home with them.He is about eighty-seven years old at this time and is considered a model citizen of his community in every sense of the word.A church goer, a Sunday School worker and a home builder, his life is such that any young man could well take for a pattern”.
“That community is benefitted by having such a man of such sterling character within it, is the opinion of every one who knows him.And, while his modesty prevents him from speaking of the moral influence, or of any good that he has done, knowing him as I do, I wish to say that he is one of the few great men I have known whose deeds have not been advertised”.
*********NOTE:- William J. Aylor, son of Stanton B. Aylor and Malinda Quaintance Aylor, born in Madison County April 11, 1841, died in Vinton, Virginia January 1, 1929, age 87 years, 8 months and 19 days, was buried in Mountain View Cemetery, Vinton, Virginia.
P.S. William Jackson and Roberta Bowie Aylor were the parents of Carlton (I think), Frank Aylor, W. C. (Raymond) Aylor, John W. and two daughters, Eva Aylor Boothe and another daughter that died in a terrible fire along with her two children. I believe there may have been another son but I don't know for sure.Hope this helps.
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Re: Robert Jane Bowie Ancestory
Al Cook 10/23/00