Helmuth Becker

Helmuth Becker, SS-Brigadeführer, was born on August 12, 1902 in Alt-Ruppin.  He served at the Dachau concentration camp from 1937 to 1939. Becker later commanded the 3rd SS Division “Totenkopf” and the 16th SS Division “Reichsführer-SS.”  He was the recipient of the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves.  Helmuth Becker died in a Soviet prisoner of war camp on February 28, 1952.  Over 43% of all SS officers that served in the concentration camps also served in the Waffen-SS combat units during the war.  Fourteen Waffen-SS officers, who won the Knight’s Cross, served in concentration camps at some time in their careers.  (The Camp Men: The SS Officers Who Ran the Nazi Concentration Camp System)

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John Hunt Morgan

Doctor F. Cowan, a member of the 1874 Yellowstone Wagon Road and Prospecting Expedition, was born in Somerset, Pulaski County, Kentucky on August 12, 1843, the son of a former sheriff.  In 1862, he lived in Stanford, Kentucky and enlisted as a private in September that year in Company B, Sixth Regiment of Cavalry, Kentucky Volunteers (Confederate Army); he later transferred to Company H.  The regiment skirmished in Kentucky, attached to Buford’s Brigade, and then fought with General John Hunt Morgan.  On July 13, 1863, during Morgan’s Raid into Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio, his raiders crossed into Ohio at Harrison, pursued by several columns of Union cavalry under Brigadier General Edward H. Hobson.

On July 19, two of Hobson’s brigades attacked Morgan near Buffington Island.  During the night, Morgan and about 400 men escaped encirclement by following a narrow woods path.  The rest of his force surrendered. On July 26, 1863, Morgan’s survivors surrendered at New Lisbon.  Apparently, Doctor Cooper was wounded in one of these battles, captured, and spent the rest of the conflict as a prisoner of war at Camp Douglas, Illinois.  After the war, he briefly lived in Georgia.  In 1870, Doctor Cowan was a farmer in East Gallatin, along with his brother William.  (Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Gold and Guns: 1874 Yellowstone Wagon Road and Prospecting Expedition and the Battle of Lodge Grass Creek)