Robert Lowry (governor)

Robert Lowry (March 10, 1829 – January 19, 1910) was an American politician and a Confederate States Army general during the American Civil War.

This article is about the American politician. For the American composer, poet, and preacher, see Robert Wadsworth Lowry.

Robert Lowry
32nd Governor of Mississippi
In office
January 2, 1882 – January 13, 1890
LieutenantG. D. Shands
Preceded byJohn Marshall Stone
Succeeded byJohn Marshall Stone
Personal details
Born(1829-03-10)March 10, 1829
Chesterfield County, South Carolina, U.S.
DiedJanuary 19, 1910(1910-01-19) (aged 80)
Jackson, Mississippi, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Signature
Military service
Allegiance Confederate States of America
Branch/service Confederate States Army
Years of service1861–65
RankBrigadier General
Commands6th Mississippi Infantry Regiment
Lowry's Brigade
Battles/warsAmerican Civil War
Governor Robert Lowry

Biography

Lowry was born in Chesterfield County, South Carolina in 1829[1] and was raised in Mississippi. During the American Civil War he enlisted as a Private in the Confederate States Army. He quickly received an officer's commission in the 6th Mississippi Infantry Regiment.[2] He commanded the regiment at the Battle of Shiloh where it which suffered very heavy casualties and he was wounded himself.[3] In early 1864 he led the troops that were sent to put down the local uprising of citizens near Jones County, Mississippi.[4] Later Lowry commanded a brigade of Mississippi regiments in the Third Corps of the Army of Tennessee; an in February 1865 he was finally promoted to Brigadier General. When the war was over, he returned to the practice of law at Brandon. Lowry briefly served in the state senate after the war (1865–1866). Massive fraud in the gubernatorial election of 1881 resulted in the election of the subject over the Independent People's Party candidate, Benjamin King.[5]

Between 1882 and 1890 he was the Democratic governor of Mississippi, serving two four-year terms. He could be called a Bourbon Democrat. The Farmers' Alliance movement continued to show local action in Yazoo County and in most areas of the state.[6] Governor Lowry called out the state militia to keep the peace in Leflore County at the end of his term of office.[7] Political activity related to peonage and racial discrimination in the Mississippi delta and other areas of the state led to violence during his term of office.[8] Rapid industrial development occurred during his administration as well as the founding of the first state-supported women's college at Columbus.[9]

Lowry was related to J. A. W. Lowry, a lawyer and politician in Bossier Parish in northwestern Louisiana.[10]

See also

Notes
  1. Glory in Grey – Volume 2
  2. Eicher, p. 355.
  3. Duval, Mary V. (1887). The Students' History of Mississippi. Louisville,KY: The Courier-Journal. p. 203.
  4. Coppock, Paul R. (February 3, 1980). "Lowry Brand of Bourbon". Commercial-Appeal (Memphis)
  5. Cresswell, Stephen Edward (1995). Multiparty Politics in Mississippi, 1877–1902. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. p. 200. ISBN 0878057706.
  6. (1888 November 15). "Board of Supervisors" Yazoo Sentinel (Yazoo City, MS).
  7. Holmes,William F. (3rd Quarter 1973), "The Leflore County Massacre and the Demise of the Colored Farmers Alliance", Phylon (Atlanta: Clark University) 34: 267
  8. (1889 September 19)."More Race Troubles". Clarion Ledger(Jackson, MS).
  9. http://mshistorynow.mdah.state.ms.us/articles/265/index.php?s=extra&id=134 Accessed July 31, 2012
  10. ""John A. W. Lowry of Bossier Parish, Louisiana" in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana". Chicago and Nashville, Tennessee: Southern Publishing Company. 1890. Retrieved March 23, 2015.

References
  • Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 978-0-8047-3641-1.
  • Sifakis, Stewart. Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File, 1988. ISBN 978-0-8160-1055-4.
  • Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. ISBN 978-0-8071-0823-9.
Party political offices
Preceded by
John Marshall Stone		 Democratic nominee for Governor of Mississippi
1881, 1885		 Succeeded by
John Marshall Stone
Political offices
Preceded by
John M. Stone		 Governor of Mississippi
1882–1890		 Succeeded by
John M. Stone
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