Charles Russell Lowell

Charles Russell Lowell III (January 2, 1835 – October 20, 1864) was an American railroad executive and a Union Army general during the American Civil War. He was mortally wounded at the Battle of Cedar Creek.

Early life Charles Russell Lowell III was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 2, 1835. His mother, Anna Cabot Jackson, a daughter of Patrick Tracy Jackson, married Charles Russell Lowell, Jr., brother of Robert Traill Spence Lowell and James Russell Lowell. Charles Jr., Robert, and James were sons of Unitarian Minister Charles Lowell. Anna wrote verse and books on education. Lowell III graduated as the valedictorian from Harvard College in 1854, and worked in an iron mill in Trenton, New Jersey, for a few months in 1855. He spent two years abroad, and from 1858 to 1860 was local treasurer of the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad. In 1860, he took charge of the Mount Savage Iron Works in Cumberland, Maryland.

Civil War Lowell entered the Union Army in June 1861, and was commissioned as a captain in the 3rd U.S. Cavalry, transferring to the 6th U.S. Cavalry in August.

Lowell was nominated as a brigadier general two days after his death. Since he was unable to sign his new commission after his death, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton authorized an exception allowing the posthumous promotion to become official. Upon hearing of his death, General George Armstrong Custer wept and Sheridan remarked "I do not think there was a quality which I could have added to Lowell. He was the perfection of a man and a soldier."

Personal life

In October 1863, Lowell married businesswoman Josephine Shaw (1843—1905), a sister of his close friend and fellow Union Army casualty Colonel Robert Gould Shaw (1837—1863). Her home when she was married was on Staten Island, and she became deeply interested in the social problems of New York City. She was a member of the State Charities Aid Society, and from 1876 to 1889 was a member of the New York State Board of Charities, being the first woman appointed to that board. She founded the Charity Organization Society of New York City in 1882, and wrote Public Relief and Private Charity (1884) and Industrial Arbitration and Conciliation (1893). They had one daughter, Carlotta Russell Lowell (November 30, 1864 — September 19, 1924).

Lowell's first biography was written in 1907 by Edward Waldo Emerson, son of Ralph Waldo Emerson.