Benjamin Welch Owens, CSA

On June 19, 1863, during the War Between the States, Private Benjamin Welch Owens of the 1st Maryland Artillery, Confederate States of America, performed heroically at the Battle of Stephenson's Depot. Born and raised in West River, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, Owens single-handedly held off Union forces, continually firing his cannon after his compatriots had been wounded. General Robert E. Lee called this battle "The Thermopylae of the War." For this action, Owens was posthumously awarded the Confederate Medal of Honor. Benjamin Welch Owens was presented as representing all the Maryland boys who fought for "a war of ideas, political conceptions, and loyalty to ancient ideals of English freedom."

Maryland · United States