Black John Galt

Joseph Bowman

Joseph Bowman, born Joseph Lawrence Bowman (c. 1752 – August 14 or 15, 1779), was a frontier, Virginia state militia officer, during the American Revolutionary War. He was second-in-command, during Colonel George Rogers Clark's 1778 military expedition to capture the Illinois Country, in which Clark and his men seized the key British-controlled towns of Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Vincennes. Following the 1779 campaign and defeat of the British forces, in Vincennes, Bowman was critically injured in an accidental gunpowder explosion and subsequently died of his wounds. He was the only American officer killed during the 1778-1779 Illinois campaign. Joseph Bowman kept a daily journal of his trek from Kaskaskia to Vincennes, which is one of the best primary source ac… more »