When the idea of forming a new Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp in Blountville, Tennessee first surfaced, our founding members wanted to pay tribute to a special Confederate. We wanted to find a "local boy who made good." We found such an individual in Lieutenant Robert Davis Powel (Powell) of Rogersville, Tennessee. (Note: The following information was gathered from The Blue and Gray From Hawkins Co., TN 1861-1865 by Sheila Weems Johnston.)
Lt. Powel (Powell) enlisted in the Hawkins County Company of the Nineteenth Tennessee Infantry on May 10, 1861. He was never married and his mother later filed a claim and received $174.00 after he was killed at Barboursville, Kentucky, on September 19, 1861. He was the brother of George R. Powel and Eliza Fain, The 1850 Census places Robert in Hawkins County and described his occupation as attorney. He was thirty-five years old in the 1860 Hawkins County, Tennessee Census and was listed as living with his brother George. Lt. Powel (Powell) was the former editor of the Rogersville newspaper and was the first man lost from Hawkins County (F. Shumaker). He was also the first Confederate soldier to be killed outside of Virginia (Military Annals of Tennessee). His body was brought back to Rogersville for burial in the old Presbyterian Church Cemetery on Washington Street.
Lt. Powel's (Powell's) parents were the Honorable Samuel Powel (Powell)and Mary C. "Polly" Rutledge Powel (Powell), the daughter of General George Rutledge of Blountville, Tennessee. Samuel's brother, Benjamin Powel (Powell) married Mary's sister Nelly and they moved to West Tennessee. It was said that on coming to Tennessee, the brothers made a slight change in the spelling of the family name, omitting the final "l" from Powell. In this way, the families have kept up with each other.
The Powels were of Welsh Quaker stock. Samuel Powel was appointed to a judgeship at the early age of thirty-two and held this position, with the exception of a period in which he served in the state legislature, until his death in 1844. He was stricken in the court room and was carried to the home of his physician, Dr. Billy Walker. Samuel died at Dr. Walker's home. Samuel had received a large acreage in Caney Valley (Hawkins County, Tennessee) for a law fee. He purchased and entered into other land, thus acquiring a large farm. Upon this land, Samuel built a home and raised a family of seven sons and two daughters; most notably among his children are Lt. Robert D. Powel (Powell), Nineteenth Tennessee Infantry and Col. Sam Powel (Powell) Twenty-Ninth Tennessee Infantry.
The Powel family must have surely developed a true fondness for Hawkins County as many of their members went to great lengths to return for burial. When Robert was killed near Barboursville, Kentucky, he was brought back to the family plot in Rogersville only two days later. A Reverend Campbell preached the sermon and a Mr. Heiskell delivered an address (from a diary in the McClung Collection, Knoxville, TN). Robert's brother, who later resided in Mississippi, as well as his mother, who died in Illinois, were also returned to Rogersville to accompany their relatives in the region they so loved.
Gallant Lieut. Robert Powel
"Confederate Veteran," Vol. VIII, p. 122, 1900
J. P. Coffin, of Batesville, Ark., corrects an error: The VETERAN of February, 1899, contained a sketch of Col. Joel A. Battle, of the Twentieth Tennessee Infantry, by Dr. W. J. McMurray, which the writer hereof read with much interest and appreciation, and which was a most worthy tribute to the memory of as gallant an officer and worthy a gentleman as wore the gray, and entitles Dr. McMurray to the gratitude of every admirer of the noble old man of whom he wrote. But there was one misstatement in the article, easily explained by the long lapse of time, which should be corrected--indeed, should have been corrected ere this.
In summing up the account of Col. Battle's expedition to Barboursville, Ky., occurs this sentence: "The only casualties on our side were one man wounded and one old white sow killed." A man named Johnson in the company to which the writer belonged was wounded, and doubtless the white sow was killed, but a brave and gallant man met his death from the first volley fired by the enemy. A part of Col. Battle's force was a squadron of cavalry from Branner's Battalion, commanded by Capt. John A. Rowan, and accompanying this squadron, as a volunteer merely, was Lieut. Robert Powel, of the Nineteenth Tennessee Infantry, who had obtained leave to join this expedition, although no part of his own regiment was going, and, having borrowed a horse, rode with the advance guard. The approach to the bridge on which Dr. McMurray speaks was through a lane with a high fence on either side, terminating at this bridge, which spanned a deep ravine, in which the enemy was posted under and on both sides of the bridge. When the front rank of the advance guard had gotten within about thirty steps of the bridge and saw in the early dawn that the floor had been taken up, they hesitated for a moment, and just then the enemy gave us their first volley, and Lieut. Powel, who was riding at my right, fell forward and to his left, striking the neck of my horse and falling to the ground. Capt. Rowan ordered one company to the right of the road and the other to the left, and while deploying under this order we heard Col. Battle's command to "clear the way for the artillery," and the enemy fled.
When I returned to where Lieut. Powel had fallen his body had been lifted to the side of the road, and the men who were with it said that he was dead when the first reached him. The body was taken back to Cumberland Gap, and I think removed to Rogersville, Tenn. (his home), for burial. I have always understood that Lieut. Powel was the first Confederate killed on the soil of Kentucky. He was the first lieutenant of the Hawkins County Company in the Nineteenth Tennessee Infantry, of which Judge C. W. Heiskell, now of Memphis, Tenn., was then captain, and was a brother of Col. Sam Powel, of the Twenty-Ninth Tennessee Infantry, who commanded a brigade and was wounded in the battle of Perryville, Ky., and who is now residing in honored old age at Hernando, Miss.
This correction is written in no critical or fault-finding spirit (for no Confederate who was at the Nashville reunion, as I was, and saw Dr. McMurray's magnificent work can be other than an admirer of him), but simply in the interest of the exact truth of history and in justice to the memory of a gallant officer and noble man whose life was given as a sacrifice to our cause so early in the conflict.
If you would like to see the various monuments and ceremonies to which our Camp has participated in regarding Lt. Powel, please click here.