Howard Mann... Many thanks for this information, which definitively establishes Lt. Col. Bowles as the author of "The Stormy Petrel."
Now it's just a question of the link between Lt. Col. Bowles and my subject's family. According to family lore, their John Bowles was a slaveholding but abolitionist landowner in the South (Virginia, possibly)--which doesn't quite square with his defending Lawrence in 1856, does it? It could be that the family lore is inaccurate. I'll try to gather a few more details if I can.
Also--was it usual for someone to receive a Special Order for mustering out, some six months after the mustering occurred? If not, what kind of circumstances might account for that?
Thanks again for the research, which is a big help. If you succeed in turning up more biographical details, I'd be very interested.
Best regards,
Susan Delson